Though it satirized countless animation styles with a dark twist, the team behind The Boys Presents: Diabolical wanted to take the homages even further.
At WonderCon, executive producer Simon Racioppa and director Giancarlo Volpe revealed which styles were omitted from Diabolical Season 1 they wanted to see in future seasons. Racioppa noted that, had CGI animation been included, an episode would have invoked a "Pixar style" before suggesting he wanted to do something in the mold of Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends cartoon. Volpe seconded Racioppa's Super Friends idea but suggested they play against expectations and not turn things sadistic, describing the feeling as "you're just watching it and you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never does. I think that's just a very wholesome sort of episode." Racioppa agreed, saying, "That would be the most Boys thing to do, is to actually get the episode and you're like, 'This is so Boys, it's not Boys at all.'"
Racioppa and Volpe also brought up some other animation pitches that never made it into The Boys Presents: Diabolical. One, according to Volpe, would have been a Who Framed Roger Rabbit-inspired human/cartoon hybrid, which he felt "would be a fun thing to play with." In turn, Racioppa suggested the episode play out like a classic Walt Disney musical, though they didn't elaborate on which Disney era would be parodied.
Released on March 4, The Boys Presents: Diabolical provided eight anthology videos that loosely explored the world and characters of Prime Video's superhero series, each with their own distinct art style. These ranged from a Rick and Morty aesthetic to French animation and a gory, slapstick-heavy Looney Tunes style. Most notably, Diabolical's third episode directly adapted the visuals of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's original Boys series, with Jason Isaacs and Simon Pegg voicing comics-accurate versions of Billy Butcher and Wee Hughie, the latter having inspired Hughie's comic look. While the majority of episodes are indirectly connected to the live-action series, showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed Diabolical's finale "One Plus One Equals Two" (written by Racioppa), which details Homelander's first public mission as a Vought International superhero, is canon.
Alongside Diabolical, Prime Video is working on another Boys spinoff focusing on the lives of young metahumans in college before they become Vought heroes. The main show, meanwhile, debuted its long-awaited Season 3 trailer in mid-March, teasing the arrival of new characters like Soldier Boy and Crimson Countess alongside The Boys' trademark violent black humor.
Season 3 of The Boys premieres on Prime Video June 3.
Source: WonderCon 2022