Gen V
Warning : SPOILERS for Gen V.
Summary
Gen Vexpanded on the world ofThe Boysand brought the Vought Cinematic Universe ’s signature brand of explosive comedy and tense thrills to a college circumstance . The show was develop by Eric Kripke , who also createdThe boy , as well as Evan Goldberg and Craig Rosenberg , who also work on the flagship series . Critically well - received and boasting a thrilling season finale that head directly intoThe Boysseason 4,Gen Vhas made quite a dab indeed in the burgeoning VCU .
On the melodious side of things , Christopher Lennertz and hisThe Boysco - composer Matt Bowenalso lent their considerable talent toGen V. Lennertz is creditworthy for hilariousThe Boyssongs like “ You ’ve Got a License to Drive ( Me Crazy ) ” and “ Chimps Do n’t shout out ” , and Bowen is a various composer whose twist onGen Vmarks his first fully co - compose score with Lennertz . Together , Lennertz and Bowen have brought the drama , shiver , and drollery ofThe BoystoGen Vwhile make for in contemporary sound to fit the serial ’ new cast of characters of lineament .
The world of The Boys has enlarge with spinoff Gen V , and here ’s everything we know about season 2 and Amazon Prime Video ’s tax return to Godolkin .
Matt Bowen and Christopher Lennertz spoke withScreen Rantabout explode penises , Homelander ’s cameo , and more .
Matt Bowen & Christopher Lennertz On Gen V
You’vebeen working onThe Boysfor such a long meter . At what stagecoach were you involved inGen V?Were you seeing playscript ? How much did you know about it before you start see footage ?
Matt Bowen : Yeah , we flummox playscript . We perplex scripts and other cut of meat , and we started play in the play-box , so to utter . I do think one of our most large melodic theme that , from sketch to air , has stuck — which is “ The Woods”– was inspired by script . We typically like to wait for footage because it ’s just so shocking that , of necessity , what we write just does n’t do it Department of Justice . And then you see it , and you ’re like , “ Oh , okay , we ’ve got to turn it up a lot . ”
Christopher Lennertz : “ So the member actually burst all . Okay , get it . Thanks . ”
Matt Bowen : [ Laughs ] No matter what ‘ exploding penis ’ is in your head , it ’s not going to pair how they can pull it off .
What ’s the tonality to scoring that , then ? I have to ask now ; when you have an exploding penis , what do you do ?
That’sa nerveless room of thinking about it . I ’m thinking about some other scenes where the euphony ’s kind of doing that .
Christopher Lennertz : Eric like very much the estimation of just dangling you over the edge of the drop with all of the prick that we have as filmmakers , whether it ’s music , roleplay , or the way that the camera movement . Then , everything block , and you go , “ Oh , my God , ” and then you come back in , like , “ All right . Let ’s work on this . ” It ’s definitely his approach .
After doing so many episodes of this insanity , do you have the capacity to react in the way of life that a regular audience member reacts ? Do you have to pretend like you have n’t been in this universe to score it the way that you want to ?
Christopher Lennertz : That ’s kind of what Matt was just let the cat out of the bag about . We specifically try not to watch too many iterations of early cuts and early stuff , because after a while , you ’re like , “ I ’ve seen that penis explode 97 times . I guess it ’s blend to blow up . ” You want that initial reaction of , “ Oh , my God , what just happened ? ” because that ’s the proper response . That ’s the reaction that should inspire whatever we ’re blend to do .
Very often , we ’ll perchance learn scripts , then let it model , and then not see it again until it ’s pretty much locked or close to locked . And then , the other key is sitting there and watching it with Eric and Michele ( Fazekas , executive producer ) as well . Being in a room and ascertain everyone see it is much more similar to what you ’re talk about , [ with ] an audience . When you ’ve sire three or four the great unwashed in the room who have never seen it , then you discover the gasps , the silences , the tense respiration , and you see people lean up in front of their chair . They ’re like , “ Oh , s * * * , something ’s coming , ” and I call up that all informs [ our work ] . We ’re like , “ Okay , I see where everyone leaned up and lay off breathing for a moment . That ’s really where the music need to set about to amp up . ” We learn a lot from being in a room with multiple citizenry , including ourselves , who have n’t seen it over and over and over again .
Matt Bowen : We dip our toe in just enough so that we get a sense of the sensitivity , especially if there ’s anything that we need to do thematically [ so ] we can start work on that . That ’s what we did on Gen V specifically ; we did startle shape on some topic , but then we backed off . Like Chris said , this is something that Chris has always done . It ’s always been counterintuitive to me , but once I bug out doing it along with him , it made so much good sense to get that nonrational reaction in the room .
Sometimes you may even feel Eric , or , onGen V , Eric and Michele looking at us to see what our reaction is going to be , which is awful . Then , [ it ’s ] , “ Okay , yeah , that appall me . Now , let ’s immediately verbalise about it and what it needs and what it does n’t need . ” And then , in the case of the exploding penis , it was , “ Hey , let ’s get out of the way , ” because there ’s plenty to soak up there .
Gen Vis so connected to The Boys in many ways ; it ’s very much in the same macrocosm . What were the fashion in which you wanted to differentiate this , sonically , from that show ?
Matt Bowen : First of all , we ’ve got raw role . We ’ve bugger off a fresh palette there , so we desire to bring some freshness . We ’re skew untried ; we ’re living in the college world now , and we wanted to lean into that a small bit . Not too much , because we did n’t want it to find like a college drama , but we did need to fetch some things that were a little more contemporary .
We brought in vocal , which is something we leaned on heavily in Gen V and something that we typically stay aside from in The Boys . We were tilt a little more on synths , with bass and 808s . Even then , we would be processing it through guitar pedals , or we ’d be swear out in a very ‘ The Boys ’ sort of way , but the legal source was different and a small contemporary . We run out there and come up with some appropriate theme and some nerveless sounds that agree the world , but when it was all said and done , we did stop up skewing a petty more towards [ The Boys ] .
Christopher Lennetz : We ’re such fans of The Boys and the universe , between that and Diabolical and everything that we ’ve done , that even as we got done with first passes of thing , I opine the two of us and Eric and Michele all drop dead , “ This is all really coolheaded , but I kind of miss feeling connected to the mothership . ” It ’s like watching a James Bond movie without the James Bond medicine in it ; it just does n’t feel right it . Like Matt said , we stretch to have a really different vocalism at the origin , and then all of us were like , “ As fans , we require some tips of the hat . We want more connection to where we come from . ”
We pull it back a footling bit by film newfangled instruments that we would n’t use in The Boys , but affect them , desegregate them , or produce them in a fashion that we would . Or sometimes [ it was ] vice versa ; we ’d take the instrument that were in The Boys , but then produce them in a agency that was n’t going to be The Boys , so subconsciously you put that together , but you do n’t feel like it ’s the same show .
Can you talk about the thought process behind leaning on the vocals this fourth dimension around ? Did that start with a certain fiber subject ?
Matt Bowen : That was actually one of our early sketch before we started getting into spawning sessions . We had this idea to bring in vocals for Marie ’s theme , and it crop so well that we were like , “ We might be on to something here , especially if we can process it . ” We started maul it , as Chris was just say .
We bring in an creative person that die by the creative person name Kotomi , [ who is ] also a very complete composer in her own right field , and she immediately catch the sensibilities . Initially , it was like , “ This can be great for Marie ’s theme , ” but then we realise , “ This might in reality be part of the fabric of the mark overall . ” So , her vocals are all over the place , but a circumstances of times , you ca n’t be like , “ There ’s a vocal there . ” It ’s a little more processed , and we did a mountain of chop up her vocals . We ’d get them back , and we ’d falsify them , or we ’d delay them , or we would begin chopping them up in dissimilar iteration so they became textural . She became a very big part of the framework of the score , but did n’t really carry unassailable melodious passages unless she was carrying Marie ’s stem , specifically .
Thisis jumping to the terminal of the show , but I want to ask about the moment where Homelander shows up . As he ’s flying through the air and landing , the medicine sound pretty heroic , even though we know he ’s the sheer worst . Can you talk about why you wanted to draw shut the scene that way of life , and how that plays into mark him in cosmopolitan ?
Christopher Lennertz : Everything in The Boys usually starts with the question , “ Whose perspective is this euphony wager powerful now ? ” And so , we ’ve got a school of aspirational superhero students ; it ’s coming from their stop of view . And yes , everyone knows some of the take that Homelander has been in , but they have n’t been secret to the whole thing like the audience has . They ’ve seen the Starlight videos , and they ’ve seen hooey , but they ’re still seem at it , like , “ Here ’s the leader of the Seven . He works for the company that does this school , ” and “ We all want to be in the Seven . ”
The thought was [ that ] we start with that as a perspective and then , as he lands , you could try the euphony start to go out of melodic line . Subconsciously , we do it that there ’s something a little wrong . And it ’s not like time of year one where , when he showed up , it was Superman . It was perfectly 100 % heroic , whereas now , when you ’re looking from their dot of view , it ’s like , “ I want to be part of his [ human race ] , but I know there ’s something off . Did he really think to do that to that guy ? ” There ’s that stuff with all the hoi polloi , so we ’re really playing it from that linear perspective . And that ’s usually the first dubiousness that we all talk about : “ The music needs to come in right on here . What perspective are we playing ? ” And that was really Eric ’s think for the moment .
Matt Bowen : Chris mentioned time of year one , and the educatee are – from an consciousness stand – more in a season one state of mind than a season three state of mind from the propaganda that they ’ve been receiving . It ’s like , “ It ’d be so fun to just go full - on time of year one with this . ” Also , to back up just a minuscule spot , the show did such a good caper of threading the needle on it being a spinoff ; it ’s an absolutely standalone show , so you might forget that you are working on a The Boys spinoff . As a real fan of The Boys at all , it ’s so fun to be like , “ Oh , yeah , this is a Boys spin off , and we ’re last to blast you right now with one of the main themes from that show . ” It was just so fun to be able to do that .
Christopher Lennertz : The same thing happened when Soldier Boy showed up kind of out of nowhere . Because it ’s him in this weird pyrexia dreaming creation , it ’s bewilder his original root word from the ‘ 40s , but played warped and out of tune as they ’re like , “ What ? Why are we here ? What is going on ? ” I think all of that was part of that same access . When our big people from the mothership show up in the show and do their cameos , we wanted to make certain that they had that shock .
I screw The Boys season 3 . My pet affair about the whole time of year was how musical it was with the harebrained song like “ licence to force ” . Then , you have Karen Fukuhara singing ; it feel like you two got to do so much , musically .
Matt Bowen : Just to be clean , those songs are 100 % Chris . I get to be a fan when it derive to the song .
Christopher Lennertz : I ’m a musical field of operations geek , so I usually work on those early on , and I love writing music and lyrics and all that stuff and nonsense . It ’s been really fun . After time of year two when we got to do the Starlight song and “ Faster ” , think we all see that that ’s so part of our worldly concern . So much of our humor is being inside , and parody , and all that stuff . We went from two song in season two to four songs in season three , and there is the tool song from Avenue V in Gen V , which is awesome . It got middling mutilate in the show right , but you hear it during the remainder credits ; it ridiculous to be able to do your own puppet radical . And there ’s merriment stuff come in season four that we ca n’t say ; lots of good stuff .
I know you ca n’t say much about time of year four , but can we mayhap have a bun in the oven some part base that we bed now to return ? Is there anything you’re able to say about what ’s make out next ?
Christopher Lennertz : I do n’t think we can say anything other than [ that ] we ’ve visualise the whole season . We ’re in the thick of it , and it ’s really heavy . It ’s got what every time of year has had , which is those moments [ where ] you ’re like , “ Oh my God , I ca n’t believe they did that . ” [ In ] every time of year it feels like there ’s more of them . In the outset , I ’m like , “ Oh , my God , did Homelander crash the plane ? ” and then , “ Oh , my God , why did everyone ’s head explode ? ” and then , “ Wait , she ’s a Nazi ? ” Then , it ’s like , “ Penis exploded ? What the hell ? ” and then , “ Wait . Is he having sexual activity with an octopus ? ” It kept getting big and bad , and I would say that there are many of those consequence as well ; in all likelihood a continually rise number of shock moment .
And , as they ’ve announced , it is taking place pretty much after the end of Gen V. So , storyline - wise , all of Gen V has happened [ leading ] up to that , which I retrieve is a really cool approach because I think we ’ve got a lot of unexampled fans after Gen V who hopefully will want to see what happens next . And I do call up that ’s probably going to be something , musically , that we address as well .
Matt Bowen : I was happy they announced the timeline , just because there are no spoilers in the timeline . It ’s just really cool to know that it ’s literally days after . It ’s the finale of Gen V , and a daytime or two by and by is the start of season four .
You get to do these new themes and explore these novel characters , [ and ] Matt , if I ’m right , I feel like this is the first season where you ’ve co - composed the whole season .
Matt Bowen : Yeah , that ’s veracious .
Do each of you have a favorite moment or favourite prospect of the show that you got to work on ?
Matt Bowen : For me , it might have been the last scene in the premiere . We make really hard on establishing these new sounds that were new and tonic but still operate in the world of The Boys , and that instalment veered slowly and slowly more towards The Boys as the instalment went on . That final three - and - a - half - minute chronological sequence was so fun for us to sour on ; if you ’re cooking , we were putting a minuscule sprinkle of this , a sparge of that , and then [ with [ that final tantrum , it was like , “ We ’re going to take the kitchen cesspit that we ’ve come up with for Gen V , and throw in our go - to kitchen sink The Boys action , and smash it together . ” It was really rewarding to see all the idea come together , and I do think that scene played enceinte because of it . And it was not a subtle sequence ; it was not smooth . Thank you to the mixer ; the score was encounter loud and majestic .
Christopher Lennertz : If we ’re calculate at the whole existence , I would say I ’m very fond to all the call moment , specifically because I also eff working with our dramatis personae . To be able-bodied to have these in - put-on recording sessions with Karen , or Jensen , when he ’s doing Blondie , or Laurie Holden . I ’ve got to give a huge , vast shoutout to Laurie Holden for “ Chimps Do n’t scream ” , because she form her tail off . Then , she made that video where she ’s out in the field with chimp and bout , and that ’s what I love . I love watching how much our cast will commit to the gag of the songs and play them so straight , and so emotional and authentic . [ That ’s ] what she did and , obviously , what Erin did with the Starlight birdcall . I will tell you , there are a couple of doozies that may appear that I ca n’t say any more about .
I go for we get a prospect to find out who in theGen Vcast can sing , but I guess we ’ll see what materialise with that .
Christopher Lennertz : We ’ve got a time of year 2 to compute it out !
About Gen V
From the humankind of The Boys comes Gen V , which search the first contemporaries of superheroes to know that their superpowers are from Compound V. These wedge put their physical and moral boundary to the test , competing for the schoolhouse ’s top ranking .
Also check out our interview withGen VVFX supervisor Karen Heston .
All episodes ofGen Vare cyclosis now on Prime Video .
