In an interview with the US site Vulture, Eric Kripke, the showrunner of “The Boys”, railed against the directors and/or actors who present their series as “a 6 or 10 hour feature film”.
Nothing to see. Leading “The Boys,” executive producer Eric Kripke knows that the main mission of his job is to find a way to entertain viewers. Something that he manages to do perfectly if we believe in the success of his series of super antiheroes on Amazon Prime Video, since its launch in 2019. In an interview with the American site Vulture, Eric Kripke did not hide his frustration when hearing some people, like Anthony Mackie in “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” or more recently Ewan McGregor in “Obi-Wan Kenobi” present their television series as feature films.
“The problem with streaming is that many of the directors who work there have never experienced the effort that traditional television requires. They feel more comfortable with the idea of being able to give you 10 hours of fiction, during which almost nothing will happen for 8 hours. Personally, it drives me crazy,” says Eric Kripke.
The freedom of streaming platforms
“As a TV veteran (worked for years on the “Supernatural” series, editor’s note) who had to do whatever it took to keep viewers interested for 22 hours, no one came to me and said, ‘Oh, hang in there and don’t do it. ‘. don’t worry. Critics will say that in the eighth episode, the story will finally catch the fans’ interest. Or someone says ‘Actually, what I’m really doing is a 10-hour movie.’ It will make you see! No, that’s not what you’re doing! Do a TV series. You are in the entertainment industry,” he continues.
Eric Kripke is the first to acknowledge the benefits of working for a streaming platform, offering the ability to fully complete a season before it airs. Something “unthinkable in the big traditional chains”. “While we’re there, we may be in the middle of shooting episode 7 and realize we have to include a new story arc. We still have time to pick it up and shoot it to insert it into a previous episode”, specifies Eric Kripke. Keep in mind that “The Boys” has already been renewed for a season 4, which should start shooting at the end of August.