''The Boys Presents: Diabolical'' is an American

adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached Developmental biology, full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and Law, legal concepts. In contrast to a "Minor (law), minor", a legal adult is a p ...

superhero

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a di ...

that premiered on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service p ...

on March 4, 2022. It serves as a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

of the

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

television series '' The Boys'', and is similarly based on the comic book series of the same name by

Garth Ennis Garth Ennis (born January 16, 1970) is a Northern Irish–American comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series ''Preacher'' with artist Steve Dillon, his nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise, and ''The Boys'' with artist Dari ...

and

Darick Robertson Darick W. Robertson is an American artist best known for his work as a comic book illustrator on series he co-created, notably '' Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002) and ''The Boys'' (2006–2012; 2020). Robertson has illustrated hundreds of comic ...

. The series is created by

Eric Kripke Eric Kripke (born 1974) is an American writer and television producer. He came to prominence as the creator of the fantasy drama series ''Supernatural'' (2005–2020) which aired on The CW. He served as the showrunner during the first five seasons ...

Seth Rogen Seth Aaron Rogen (; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series '' Freaks and Geeks'', and then got a part ...

and

Evan Goldberg Evan D. Goldberg (born September 15, 1982) is a Canadian-American filmmaker and comedian. He has collaborated with his childhood friend Seth Rogen on the films '' Superbad'', '' Pineapple Express'', '' This Is the End'', '' The Interview'', and ' ...

, all executive producers of ''The Boys'' television series, alongside Simon Racioppa. Every episode serves as a stand-alone story set in the universe of the live-action series; the tone of the stories vary from comedic to dramatic, and each episode has its own animation style. Writers include Ennis, Racioppa, Rogen, Goldberg,

Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the co-creator of Adult Swim's ''Rick and Morty'' and its subsequent franchise. He voices the show's titular ...

Ilana Glazer Ilana Glazer (born April 12, 1987) is an American comedian, director, producer, writer, and actress. She co-created and co-starred, with Abbi Jacobson, in the Comedy Central series ''Broad City'', which is based on the web series of the same nam ...

Awkwafina Nora Lum (born June 2, 1988), known professionally as Awkwafina, is an American actress, rapper, and comedian who rose to prominence in 2012 when her rap song "My Vag" became popular on YouTube. She then released her debut album, ''Yellow Ran ...

, and

Andy Samberg Andy Samberg (born David A. J. Samberg; August 18, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, musician, producer and screenwriter. He is a member of the comedy music group The Lonely Island and was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2005 ...

; featured voice actors include

Antony Starr Antony Starr (born 25 October 1975) is a New Zealand actor, known for his television roles. He played the dual roles of Jethro and Van West on '' Outrageous Fortune'' (2005–10), Lucas Hood on ''Banshee'' (2013–16), and Homelander on ''The Bo ...

Dominique McElligott Dominique McElligott (born March 5, 1986) is an Irish actress. She has appeared as a series regular on '' Raw'' (2008), '' Hell on Wheels'' (2011–2012), '' The Astronaut Wives Club'' (2015), '' House of Cards'' (2016–2017), '' The Last Tycoon ...

Colby Minifie Colby Minifie (born January 31, 1992) is an American actress. She began acting at the age of eleven and was a YoungArts scholar; she graduated from the City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public uni ...

Chace Crawford Christopher Chace Crawford (born July 18, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his television portrayals of Nate Archibald on The CW's teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007–2012), and of The Deep in Amazon Prime Video original series ...

Elisabeth Shue Elisabeth Judson Shue (born October 6, 1963) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''The Karate Kid'' (1984), ''Adventures in Babysitting'' (1987), ''Cocktail'' (1988), ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989), ''Bac ...

, and

Giancarlo Esposito Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is best known for portraying Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'', from 2009 to 2011, and in its prequel series ''Better Ca ...

, reprising their roles from the live-action series. ''Diabolical'' received positive reviews from critics, with praise going to the animation, voice acting, writing, humor and themes.

Premise

A series of animated shorts telling side stories in the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. A ...

of '' The Boys'' using various animation styles.

Episodes

Production

At the 2021

CCXP CCXP (originally called Comic Con Experience) is a Brazilian multi-genre entertainment and comic convention. It is based on the San Diego Comic-Con and has attractions and contents about comics, TV series, movies, video games, literature and inte ...

Worlds panel for Prime Video in Brazil, ''The Boys Presents: Diabolical'' was first announced. It was revealed to be an animated anthology series set in ''The Boys'' universe, with executive producers

and

likening it to ''

The Animatrix is a 2003 adult animated science-fiction anthology film produced by the Wachowskis. The film details through nine animated short films the backstory of ''The Matrix'' film series, including the original war between humanity and machines which ...

''. ''Diabolical'' is made up of eight brand new stories created by

, Eliot Glazer and

, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, Simon Racioppa,

and Ben Bayouth,

, and

Aisha Tyler Aisha Nilaja Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, director, and talk show host. She is known for playing Andrea Marino in the first season of ''Ghost Whisperer'', Dr. Tara Lewis in ''Criminal Minds'', Mother Nature ...

. The series premiered on March 4, 2022.

stated that the idea to create ''Diabolical'' arose during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, when the producers wanted to release something during the wait for season three of ''The Boys''. Due to the restrictions on most live-action productions, they decided to try and make an animated anthology utilizing different forms and styles. Several key cast members were revealed with the first

teaser trailer A teaser (or more specifically teaser trailer) is a mini- trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release move or television show advertisement. Short in length, te ...

in February 2022, which included several of the creators. Later that month, a full trailer with the rest of the large cast was revealed. This included the revelation that Pegg would provide the voice of Hughie Campbell, a character who was long associated with Pegg; however, Pegg could not portray him in live action, having aged too much by the time the series was produced. Eric Kripke later clarified that the show's production crew only considered three episodes to be canon despite the entire show being advertised as such. These are: "Nubian vs Nubian", "John and Sun-Hee" and "One Plus One Equals Two". "I'm Your Pusher" is further set in the universe of the comics.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the series holds a 97% approval rating based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Diabolical''s animated shorts pack the same supersized punch as ''The Boys'', transposing the original series' scabrous social commentary into a cartoonish medium that's just as much devilish fun–and definitely not for kids."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boys Presents: Diabolical, The Diabolical 2020s American adult animated television series 2020s American anthology television series 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings Adult animated television shows based on DC Comics Animated television series by Amazon Studios American adult animation anthology series American adult animated comedy television series American adult animated drama television series American adult animated superhero television series American adult animated television spin-offs Anime-influenced Western animated television series Dynamite Entertainment adaptations Amazon Prime Video original programming English-language television shows Television shows based on comics Television series by Amazon Studios Television series by Sony Pictures Television