Why Did Eric Kripke Want To Leave The Boys Before Season 1 Even Hit Screens?(Photo Credit –Instagram)
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Eric Kripke almost walked away from The Boys before it ever aired. And yes, the moment that nearly broke him was exactly what you’d expect from a show like this — The Deep and a dolphin.
In a recent episode of Sony’s Creator to Creator podcast, Kripke revealed that Season 1 wasn’t just the toughest to make. It nearly ended him. He was learning how to make the show, his writers were learning how to shape it, and Amazon was learning exactly what they had greenlit. And then came the scene where Chace Crawford’s character, The Deep, shares a little too much chemistry with a dolphin.
Amazon wanted to cut it. Eric Kripke wasn’t having it. The moment sounds ridiculous, but it became a line in the sand. He saw it as a defining piece of the show’s twisted DNA. “If you don’t want him to f*** a dolphin, then what are we even doing here?” he told the studio that he was fully ready to pack up and go home. That’s not hyperbole. That’s how seriously he took the tone of the show.
The Boys: Would It Still Be the Same Show If Eric Kripke Had Played It Safe?
Kripke explained that The Boys didn’t have a template to follow early on. It was dark, grotesque, funny in the most inappropriate ways, and that kind of tone doesn’t come with a manual. So when Amazon pushed back on that now-iconic moment, Kripke didn’t blink. For him, toning it down would’ve killed the entire vision.
He didn’t want to be safe. He wanted to be reckless. And if the show was going to pull its punches, there was no point in making it at all. Looking back, it’s clear that the creative standoff was the right move. The Deep’s absurd marine life subplot not only survived but helped The Boys find its voice. It made fans laugh, cringe, and realize they weren’t watching another by-the-numbers superhero show. They were watching something unfiltered.
Four seasons later, The Boys is a juggernaut, critically loved, Emmy-nominated, and still as deranged as ever. But all of that nearly got shut down by one pushback, one line in a script, and one very determined creator who refused to let it be anything less than insane.
The Boys Seasons 1 through 4 are now streaming on Prime Video.
