The Boys Diabolical: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg on The Animatrix Inspiration

If you’re a fan of The Boys on Prime Video, I hope you have checked out The Boys Presents: Diabolical. The eight-episode animated anthology series started streaming last week and it's fantastic. I don’t want to spoil what the episodes are about, but none of them hold back on what you’ve come to expect from this twisted series which includes plenty of blood-drenched moments and shocking surprises.

But unlike the regular series, The Boys Presents: Diabolical tells stories involving characters you’ve never seen on the show. In addition, Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Eric Kripke, and Simon Racioppa invited people like Awkwafina, Garth Ennis, Eliot Glazer, Ilana Glazer, Justin Roiland, Ben Bayouth, Andy Samberg, and Aisha Tyler to contribute to the season, and each brought memorable episodes and something you’re not expecting.

Shortly after watching the season, I spoke with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. They talked about their episode Laser Baby’s Day Out, doing an episode inspired by Buster Keaton with minimal dialogue, how they took a lot of cues from The Animatrix, how the series was one of the more seamless collaborations they’ve had, if Prime Video has ever told them no to something they wanted to do on The Boys, Season 2 plans, and how Sandberg’s emotional episode happened. In addition, they talked about how they’re trying to direct another live-action movie.

Check out what they had to say below.

COLLIDER: You guys have made a lot of stuff that I love watching. And I think that I speak for a lot of people when I just want to say thank you.

EVAN GOLDBERG: Thank you for watching it.

SETH ROGEN: Thank you.

I want to jump backwards. The Boys is a huge hit for Prime Video. When did you both realize that, "Oh my God, this is going to be a huge show?"

ROGEN: They don't really tell you that much. It's funny, you don't get an email, and it's like, "Oh, you're a huge show." It was actually, I think, as we were going into the second season is when I was like, "Oh, people seem really into this." That's when I realized, when there was so much anticipation for the second season and when the second season started airing and it felt like everyone was talking about it, that's when I felt as though it was a very popular show. Evan, did you have a different or similar feeling?

GOLDBERG: I had a similar feeling. It was mostly friends and family who were bored with my life and career who were reengaged was a sign to me that it was good. People who were just like, hadn't seen my last three movies were watching the show, and I was like, "That's a good sign."

The Boys Diabolical laser baby's day out

I loved your episode of Diabolical. Was it always going to be the episode that the viewers are going to see? Did you have other ideas that you pursued? How did you end up with this one?

GOLDBERG: We started with this one. We just went straight to this idea. We've been talking for years about doing a Buster Keaton type thing, a silence, physical comedy of some nature. When this animated opportunity came around, we just immediately knew it was the perfect application.

ROGEN: Yeah. I think we've written so many dialogue-based kind of comedy throughout the course of our careers that I think we've swung in the other direction lately. A much more fun and interesting challenge has become like, "Oh, can we convey emotion and dynamics and comedy and stakes and all this stuff without any dialogue basically?" It's something we've been talking about for a long time. And this was a very good practical application of that.

In the script are you writing in the gags and the little things that you're going to see in the background and on the sides? How much are you sort of working with a storyboard artist? What's that dynamic?

ROGEN: Yeah, it was really created specifically, right?

GOLDBERG: We wrote it quite specifically. Like background stuff. I think the directors brought a lot of that to the table, but we were pretty specific. Some of the best gags are definitely the animators, but the course of events and what happens and pretty much the basic structure of all the gags was stuff that we wrote into the initial, I don't' know, was it a seven page script. It was 11 minutes, but no speaking. So it was six pages, I think, something like that.

ROGEN: Yeah. Kind of read like a book.

GOLDBERG: Very short book.

Eric told me that the goal was for the episodes to be 10 to 15 minutes and most of them ended up at around 12 minutes. How did you guys figure out that 12 minute or that length for episodes?

GOLDBERG: It's just a per episode thing, each one unto themselves. How long can someone enjoy a thing about pooh that talks to its creator? It lands you at about 12 minutes. How many times can you see a baby eviscerate people with laser eyes? 12 minutes.

ROGEN: We took a lot of cues from The Animatrix, honestly. That was kind of a really big thing for me. And then, we were obsessed with The Matrix and when The Animatrix came out, it just seems so creative and interesting. And you know-

GOLDBERG: And I've never been more disappointed. I was like, there's going to be infinite this now. There's going to be so many things like this. And there weren't, there are some.

ROGEN: No, there weren't. And I really think that's the dragon we're chasing a little bit, and those seem to function very similarly, both in kind of how they were filling out the world and the length and the animation styles, stuff like that. It's almost something I don't think we were doing consciously at the time. And now I look at them and I'm like, "Oh, we were just ripping off..." Like we were to the letter of almost like the page count, ripping off The Animatrix.

You can do a lot worse than following what the Wachowskis have set up.

ROGEN: Exactly.

What is it like behind the scenes? Because you guys are obviously producing, you're very involved. When you write something does anyone tell you no?

GOLDBERG: Well, this was like, of all the TV we've done, this was the most collaborative team effort of anything ever. Like Simon Racioppa and Giancarlo to Eric, like the directors, we were all... It was one of the more seamless collaborations and there was no one saying no to anyone, really. Everyone just seamlessly came to the right places. I never had-

ROGEN: And Prime, to their credit is very creatively good to work with. Like they let us do what we like. They give us notes and feedback and-

GOLDBERG: They're good.

ROGEN: It's often smart. And it's often good. It pains us to say that, and in general, they've become a very good partner for us. We have some other things that have not been announced yet that we've been working on with them as well. That'll be coming and both Boys related, and un-Boys related. I can't think of a time they've really stopped us from trying to do a thing that we really, really want to do. So that's good.

One of the things that I love about The Boys, and I think what a lot of people love is that you guys are constantly pushing audience expectations, including with Diabolical and just in general. Have they ever pulled you aside, Prime Video, and said, "Guys, we love you. But this actually could be too much."

GOLDBERG: No. We've had a few deep conversations over the course of The Boys about certain scenes and moments. They don't say nothing about the big things that are big swings that say a lot, but the conversation goes well.

ROGEN: It does, yeah. They've said that. And so far things have fallen where we hoped they would. The day that the studio stops calling us, telling us that we've gone way too far is the day that we have started to lose our touch, I think.

The season is eight episodes. Eric told me that Amazon was waiting to see how it does before doing more episodes. But are you guys hopeful that you'll be able to do a season two? And this will be a regular thing?

ROGEN: We'd love to.

GOLDBERG: We got it all. Everyone wants to come back. Simon Racioppa and Giancarlo, Eric, all of us, we all just want to get back in it. We have tons of ideas, tons of new people we can bring in. Nothing would be better than doing this forever.

ROGEN: No, it was so much fun to do. It was really gratifying, truly like one of those funny ideas we were joking around about that became a real thing, which is like, those are often our favorite things. Like the things that were really born out of just what we personally wanted to watch. And that's what this was. So to actually see it come to life, it's been insane. Getting the cuts of the episodes after hearing the people pitch them to us and all this stuff. It came together pretty fast too, which was really nice. Like once they told us to go, we kind of just went and did it, and now it's coming out, it's been nice in that way.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. That is one of the reasons it was so nice, is we didn't have time to go slow. Everything was an insane rush. So we couldn't deliberate for too long on anything.

I'm a huge Andy Sandberg fan and when I heard he was going to write something, I'm like, "Oh, this is going to be a certain way." Then I watched the episode, not knowing that he wrote that one and was just like jaw on ground. It was so unexpected. And it's so good. Can you guys talk about that episode specifically, and maybe what surprised you. Because it's so not what audiences are going to expect with Andy.

GOLDBERG: Yeah, I called him and said, would you like to do this show? Do whatever you want. The only rule is Compound V exists. And he instantly was like, "I have an idea I've always wanted to do that I don't... Is not something people would expect from me, but this seems like a place where I could maybe actually do it."

He's like, "It's a sad love story, about a couple and cancer." I'd already said, "You can do whatever you want." So we were like, "Yeah, sounds great." Then we teamed him up with a director who brought this whole other element to it, being a Korean American person. He restructured with Andy, because Andy just initially wrote it like non-descript. And that took it to like a whole other level. So his idea and the emotional nature of it and how profoundly sad it is, and the director's vision really came together in a, I think, poetic way. I think it's very beautiful, his.

Oh, absolutely. Did you have a favorite or a certain one that you would really recommend for audiences to make sure they watch?

GOLDBERG: I mean, my favorite is Andy's I think, but you know, the rest of them are funny. Or, I guess they're not all funny. Hmm.

ROGEN: No, I like Simon's a lot.

GOLDBERG: Simon's is good.

ROGEN: I like the Homelander's first mission one quite a bit. Yeah. Like I think if you're a fan of The Boys, that one is maybe the easiest entry point.

GOLDBERG: But that one also... It's a little confusing, but that one is canon and the other ones are not.

ROGEN: Yeah.

GOLDBERG: So that's actual backstory on Homelander that you don't get in the show, in The Boys.

Eric, said that that's canon and hopefully every season, maybe you could do something that's canon. But look, I'm out of time, but I just have to ask you guys. You guys know that I'm a really big fan of when you're directing. It's been a really long time since you've done live-action. Is there any possibility you guys are going to direct something live action soon?

GOLDBERG: We are.

ROGEN: We hope so.

GOLDBERG: We're desperately trying to. That is our number one goal right now.

ROGEN: Yes.

GOLDBERG: Is to direct something.

ROGEN: We would like nothing more and hopefully soon we will.