Ahead of the season three premiere of The Boys on Amazon Prime Video, the company has released an animated anthology series that takes place in the same universe. And while fans had every reason to have reservations about the spinoff, it seems that Amazon Studios has delivered on the series’ premise.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical is an 8-episode animated series that gives fans everything they love about the original, including dark humor, mature themes, and insane plot developments. The story also reprises many beloved characters from the franchise, including Billy Butcher and Homelander, though the former is voiced by Jason Isaacs for this outing, as opposed to Karl Urban.
Diabolical releases in three days, and early reviews are calling it a successful spinoff venture. Below, you can read a roundup of some of these first impressions.
Collider praised the show for not holding back, writing that it “revels in the squeamish yet hilarious, disemboweling the darker aspects of the superhero genre to reveal its blood and guts that it subsequently throws everywhere.” So, basically, your typical Boys episode.
/Film affirmed that Diabolical works precisely because of its unhinged nature: “This little experiment was more successful than Vought can usually claim, at least. Here’s to more animated anthologies, where creators can really go wild,” the review reads.
Variety wrote that “all eight episodes are filled with buckets of blood, oozing intestines and some of the most outrageous superhero characters seen on TV” and further noted: “It’s exciting to see Amazon expand the world of The Boys.”
IGN also granted the series a positive review, giving it an 8/10 and writing that The Boys: Diabolical “delivers a highly entertaining and visually distinct anthology with a variety of tones, stories, and animation styles.”
All eight episodes of Diabolical will become available for streaming on March 4.
