Diabolical showrunner Simon Racioppa on extending The Boys to an animated universe, and possibility of Season 2

The Amazon Prime Video show _The Boys_ has already gained a legion of fans, and the largely positive response to the comic-book adaptation has led to the animated spin-off _The Boys Presents: Diabolical_ , a collection of eight animated shorts written by the likes of Awkwafina, Andy Samberg, Ilana Glazer, and the original comics’ creator Garth Ennis. The following are edited excerpts from a Zoom conversation with Simon Racioppa, showrunner and executive producer on Diabolical, and the writer of its concluding episode, ‘One Plus One Equals Two,’ which explores the origins of series antagonist Homelander [Antony Starr].   One of the first things the viewer notices about this series is that there are a lot of very different animation styles covered across the season — for example, the episode written by Awkwafina has clear influences from Shōjo anime and the ‘chibi’ or exaggerated style of manga illustrations; Justin Roiland brings his signature Rick and Morty animation style to another episode. Did you decide on the various looks first or did the stories come first and you then searched for the right animation style to suit each story’s tonality?

We always wanted to have a variety of styles but each episode came along in its own way.

Some of them, like ‘Laser Baby’s Day Out,’ which is Looney Tunes or Roger Rabbit-styled animation, for that one, we always knew we wanted this big, classic cartoon style. But for others, like ‘Boyd in 3D’ [written by Ilana and Elliott Glazer], the style came a little bit later after we were working through the script. We started talking about French illustrations, about books like Tintin and films like The Triplets of Belleville; it seemed to be where that episode wanted to fit.     Talk me through ‘John and Sun-hee,’ the episode written by Andy Samberg. It is perhaps my favourite among the lot, an unusually tender love story set amidst the machinations of the Vought Corporation. How did you and Andy arrive at this story, which is so tonally different from the rest of The Boys universe? So Andy came in with the story for that episode, and pitched it to myself and to [The Boys showrunner] Eric Kripke and to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who’re also executive producers on the show. We knew that it was going to be a story about love and loss and cancer and letting go. We loved it but we had not decided upon the characters’ ethnicity. When we brought on Steve Ahn, the director of that episode, he connected with the story on a very personal level, and he asked us if could change the story a little bit, put it in a Korean headspace [Ahn is Korean himself]. So we supported that by bringing in a Korean studio for the animation, working with Steve to find two great Korean actors. It’s one of the episodes that’s in some ways most different from our initial conception of it, but we all loved it.   In the last episode, which you have written yourself, we see series antagonist Homelander in a very different light, as a largely clueless [and even scared, at some level] newbie desperately wanting to be included in the superhero world. According to you, how are Homelander’s current actions [as seen in the first and second seasons] reflected by the fears and insecurities we see in ‘One Plus One Equals Two?’ That’s a really good question [laughs],  and I think Eric Kripke, who’s showrunner on The Boys, would be able to answer it better. But I can tell you my perspective on it, which is this: Homelander is obviously kind of a psychopath or a sociopath in The Boys but you don’t just become that or you can’t simply be born that way. There are actions and incidents that lead up to something like that, and being raised by a terrible corporation to be both a weapon and a money-maker, could do that to anybody, I think. So I wanted to introduce the idea that maybe he’s not entirely to blame for the way he is, maybe how he was treated as a child has something to do with it. It’s not necessarily meant to evoke sympathy but to make you understand the reasons.   I loved the reference to The Social Network [“Drop the ’the,’ just ‘Homelander’”] in your episode — was that always a part of the script? Are there parallels to be drawn between Facebook’s changing public perception and the way Vought lost control of the public narrative around superheroes?  I’d love it if people drew parallels! The line itself came about as a way of referencing Garth Ennis’ original character from the comics, who’s called ‘The Homelander.’ But also to show you the kind of ruthlessness of corporations, we wanted to link it to a real-world corporation that really only exists to make money, even if it makes the world a worse place along the way. So yes, there is a certain mirroring between Vought and Facebook.   Moving ahead, what can we expect from the universe of Diabolical? Well, if Amazon does offer us a second season, we would like to continue making episodes that are very different from each other in terms of style and the stories that we want to tell. I would like Diabolical to be a kind of creative grab-bag, new writers with new ideas, showing you things you haven’t seen before. Maybe we’ll do some live action episodes or a puppet show or a stage play. The Boys Presents: Diabolical is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based independent writer and journalist, currently working on a book of essays on Indian comics and graphic novels. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.