It's about time Hollywood realized the potential of the animated anthology as a way to expand a franchise's world in creative and visually exciting ways. Just look at what Star Wars: Vision and The Animatrix did for their respective universes. Now, the first look at The Boys: Diabolical promises to do the same for the irreverent superhero show, with an anthology that brings together a variety of comedic voices to tell never-before-seen stories within the world of the show, all with different animation styles.
We get a look at one of the animation styles in Laser Baby, which looks straight out of a classic Tex Avery or Chuck Jones cartoon, as we see a worried scientist look in horror as a small toddler brutally and mercilessly obliterates a squadron of soldiers with her laser eyes, which liquefies the soldiers, all before she merrily crawls away when she gets distracted by a floating balloon.
The Boys: Diabolical promises to deliver episodes as varied as the powers of the superheroes that inhabit its world. The only downside is that we won't get to spend too much time on any one story, as the "fun-size" (or quibies) episodes will run between 12 and 14 minutes each. The episodes will be written by The Boys co-creator Garth Ennis, Awkwafina, Eliot Glazer and Ilana Glazer, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, Simon Racioppa, Justin Roiland and Ben Bayouth, Andy Samberg, and Aisha Tyler.
In an announcement video for the animated anthology, the showrunner of the live-action show, Eric Kripke, who is also executive producing The Boys: Diabolical, teased what fans can expect of the new show:
“Surprise! We’re almost finished with eight episodes of our animated series, Diabolical. We gathered together some incredible creators and we gave them one rule…just kidding, there’s no rules. They blew the doors off it, delivering eight completely unexpected, funny, shocking, gory, moist, emotional episodes. You think The Boys is nuts? Wait till you see this."
The Boys: Diabolical comes from Titmouse Studio, who also animated shows like Megas XLR, Star Trek: Lower Decks and the upcoming The Legend of Vox Machina. In addition to showing off the gore and irreverent humor we can expect from the show, the first look also reveals a release date for the show: March 4, 2022.
You can watch the first footage of The Boys: Diabolical below: