Showrunner Eric Kripke explains how The Boys’ The Legend, transformed from a pastiche of Stan Lee to a combination of classic Hollywood producers.
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke discussed how the recently introduced character, The Legend, evolved during development from the Stan Lee tribute introduced in the comics to a figure inspired by old-school Hollywood producers.
In an interview with CBR, Kripke was asked to elaborate on the Legend’s introduction to the award-winning series in Season 3’s fifth episode, “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies”, and how the inspiration for the character changed. “The comic book version of the Legend, he’s very clearly obviously based on Stan Lee,” he said. “I think that’s because, in the comic books’ universe, it’s the comic books that are the main superhero media because Garth Ennis wrote it in 2004/2005 when comic books [were] pretty much all there was. Marvel Studios was just a gleam in Kevin Feige’s eye.”
“So, it made sense that the person who was the “the legend” in charge of that media would be a Stan Lee-type,” he continued. “In our world, comic books are sort of what comic books are now in reality, which is like an awesome medium but a reasonably small slice of the audience. In our universe, it’s Vought Studios and massive movies and television shows on Vought Plus.”
To reflect how prevalent superheroes are to the cultural zeitgeist of The Boys‘ universe, Kripke and his team decided to shift the basis for The Legend to an old-school film producer like Robert Evans, the kind of person who would be the “king” of the media in the show. “They were so out of the time and inappropriate, and they were just fascinating to watch,” the showrunner concluded. “[The Legend] was sort of my love letter to those guys, and it feels appropriate for this world.”
The Legend is played in Season 3 of The Boys by actor Paul Reiser. It is uncertain how large of a role he will play in the rest of the series, assuming the character does appear in future episodes. He was shown to have a relationship with a range of characters within the Prime Video series’ universe, including Mother’s Milk and Soldier Boy.
Seasons 1 and 2 of The Boys are available to stream now on Prime Video. New episodes of Season 3 are released every Friday.
Source: CBR