Gen V Trailer: The Kids Aren't Alright In The Boys College Spinoff Series
Across movies, TV shows, books, and comics, I'd bet you could easily name five or more properties off the top of your head that depict schools for students with special abilities. The creators behind Prime Video's "The Boys" are hoping to add one more to your list with the upcoming spin-off "Gen V," which has just dropped its first trailer and is set to release sometime in 2023. Announced in September 2020, the new project follows the animated "The Boys Presents: Diabolical" shorts as the second offshoot of the core show but is the first in live action. As such, it will largely set the tone for whether "The Boys" source material can sustain an extended universe.
With how many popular comic book superheroes they've parodied, "The Boys" comic series, written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson, is not lacking in abundant characters to adapt. "Gen V" will loosely chronicle the team known as the G-Men, who are an unabashed satire of the X-Men, but will also take inspiration from "The Hunger Games" according to Prime Video's synopsis of the show.
In the comics, the G-Men are a major money maker for Vought and are artificially branded as misfits despite coming from wealthy backgrounds. Also like the X-Men, there are several teams that have spun out of the G-Men, including G-Force and G-Style, meaning any members of those teams are on the table to be used in the show, along with completely new characters. Check out the first look trailer for "Gen V" below.
Introducing the G-Men?
The "Gen V" trailer opens with a birds-eye view of Godolkin University's School of Crimefighting — named after its benefactor John Godolkin, who is a powerless but boundlessly evil analog to X-Men's Professor Xavier. We see a statue of Homelander on the front lawn and an A-Train Turbo vending machine in the hallway, reminding us how pervasive the Seven are in this universe. Then, we see "Murderer" written in blood on the wall to warn us of the violence and gore to follow.
The trailer devotes a few frames to each of its core cast members, once to introduce them and in many cases, to show them again later with blood splattered on their face. It dedicates the most time to actress Jaz Sinclair ("Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," "Paper Towns") as Marie Moreau, who in season 3 of "The Boys," was teased as a patient of the Red River Institute, where Vought experiments on supes.
As we see, Marie's disturbing powers enable her to propel her arteries and veins out her wrists and to use them as tentacles. We get the sense she has a tragic background too, and may have accidentally killed a member of her family when she was younger.
Other character introductions are more abbreviated. Derek Luh looks to be strong enough to throw a security car. Another shot indicates Chance Perdomo ("Chilling Adventures of Sabrina") may be a telekinetic, but he's also seen a couple times looking terrified. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays one of the few named characters, Golden Boy, and is shown standing in the woods. But they are all only part of a larger ensemble.
Too soon to judge
We get very brief glimpses of the other new characters in "Gen V" played by actors like Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Shelley Conn, Clancy Brown, and Sean Patrick Thomas. A few cast members from "The Boys" will also be reprising their roles such as Colby Minifie, who plays Vought's recently-crowned CEO Ashley Barrett, and Jessie T. Usher, who plays A-Train. (The Deep also makes an appearance, in puppet form).
The trailer is definitely setting up a rivalry between the students and campus security, but it's unclear for which side everyone will be fighting. The G-Men of the comics are unreservedly loyal to John Godolkin, so we will have to wait to learn where allegiances lie. As the offspring of "The Boys," the show is sure to be full of many more surprises, and as the trailer has already revealed that puppets factor in, we should already expect the unexpected.
If "Gen V" can manage to feel fresh and distinct from "The Boys" while expanding on what it has built, there's no limit to where the creators could take the franchise. Could we one day get "The Boys" answer to the Infinity or even Multiverse saga? If Amazon fulfills its recent commitment to invest $1 billion annually in films for theaters, is there any reason we can't get "Dawn of the Seven" or another event film of some kind? It all hinges on "Gen V,' so here's to hoping it delivers.