Eric Kripke reveals that he almost walked off The Boys due to this particular season 1 scene

The Boys will stream its fifth and final season next year. The Prime Video superhero satire is known not only for its political commentary and risque, raunchy scenes. With every season, showrunner Eric Kripke keeps upping the ante when it comes to bizarrely risky and comedic moments, and he has been allowed to do so since the second season.

However, The Boys' showrunner wasn't afforded the same level of creative freedom when he was working on the first season. Kripke revealed this during his appearance on Sony's podcast Creator to Creator. There, he spoke about one particular moment from season 1, which Amazon found way too raunchy and requested Kripke to remove.

The scene in question comes from the fourth episode, featuring Chace Crawford's The Deep rescuing a dolphin from an aquatic center. The Deep, much like DC's Aquaman, talks to sea life. Amazon had a problem with what the Dolphin told The Deep. When the streamer objected at this moment, Kripke refused to remove this moment and even threatened to walk off The Boys.

Content Warning: This portion of the article mentions implied b*stiality. Reader discretion is advised.

What did the particular moment in The Boys imply that made Amazon pause?

The Deep rescues a dolphin from an aquatic center to set it free in the ocean. The dolphin is on the back of the van, and The Deep can hear its thoughts. But it is The Deep's responses that make the viewer understand what the dolphin asked of The Deep for some s*xual favors. The Deep's s*xual relationship with the underwater sea creatures is something that's confirmed in the other seasons of The Boys.

Despite all the blood and gore, it is understandable that a mega corporation was a bit hesitant about implying b*stiality, even if the show was marketed specifically for adults only. However, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke refused to do so and recalled the difficult experience to Shawn Ryan at the Creator to Creator podcast:

“The first season of The Boys was definitely the hardest one — and I had a wonderful staff — but it’s like, I’m learning how to do the show, they’re learning how to write the show. And then on top of all of that, we were a tone that sort of hadn’t been done in television before and so, the amount of Amazon saying, ‘You can’t imply that The Deep f***ed a dolphin.’ [Laughs]”

Kripke continued:

“You would have laughed at how hard I pushed back on that. I was like, ‘Well, I’m going home then. Cuz if you don’t want him to f*** a dolphin, then what are we even doing here? Then clearly we’re not making the same show.’”

Showrunner Eric Kripke justifies this specific push back:

Kripke justified this pushback, saying that the dark satirical superhero series became a major hit because of its bizarrely raunchy scenes. For instance, we still discuss the opening scene from season 3, where the show uses this universe's equivalent of Marvel's Ant-Man memorably. Stating that the show became a major event because of this pushback, the showrunner said:

“It mattered to me in terms of this is our tone, you have to be reckless and insane, if we’re gonna pull our punches, what are we doing? Why are we making this? So, there was an incredible amount of intensity, second guessing, kind of fighting, but we ended up winning more than we lost. And then the show was on the air and, yeah, it’s helpful when it works.”

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The fifth season is expected to be released somewhere in 2026. Until then, four seasons of The Boys are available to stream on Prime Video.

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