The Boys Presents: Diabolical

The Boys Presents: Diabolical is an American adult animated superhero anthology series that premiered on Amazon Prime Video on March 4, 2022. It serves as a spin-off of the live action television series The Boys, and is similarly based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The series is created by Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, all executive producers of The Boys television series, alongside Simon Racioppa.

Each episode serves as a stand-alone story set in a separate universe than of the live-action series, with the exception of the final three episodes, which share continuity with the live action series. The tone of the stories vary from comedic to dramatic, and each episode has its own animation style. Writers include Ennis, Racioppa, Rogen, Goldberg, Justin Roiland, Ilana Glazer, Awkwafina, and Andy Samberg; featured voice actors include Antony Starr, Dominique McElligott, Colby Minifie, Chace Crawford, Elisabeth Shue, and Giancarlo Esposito, reprising their roles from the live-action series.

Diabolical received positive reviews from critics, with praise going to the animation, voice acting, writing, humor and themes.

Premise
A series of animated shorts telling side stories in the universe of The Boys using various animation styles.

Production
At the 2021 CCXP Worlds panel for Prime Video in Brazil, The Boys Presents: Diabolical was first announced. It was revealed to be an animated anthology series set in The Boys universe, with executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg likening it to The Animatrix. Diabolical is made up of eight brand new stories created by Awkwafina, Garth Ennis, Eliot Glazer and Ilana Glazer, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, Simon Racioppa, Justin Roiland and Ben Bayouth, Andy Samberg, and Aisha Tyler. The series premiered on March 4, 2022.

Eric Kripke stated that the idea to create Diabolical arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the producers wanted to release something during the wait for season three of The Boys. Due to the restrictions on most live-action productions, they decided to try and make an animated anthology utilizing different forms and styles.

Several key cast members were revealed with the first teaser trailer in February 2022, which included several of the creators. Later that month, a full trailer with the rest of the large cast was revealed. This included the revelation that Pegg would provide the voice of Hughie Campbell, a character who was long associated with Pegg; however, Pegg could not portray him in live action, having aged too much by the time the series was produced.

Eric Kripke later clarified that the show's production crew only considered three episodes to be canon despite the entire show being advertised as such. These are "Nubian vs Nubian", "John and Sun-Hee", and "One Plus One Equals Two". "I'm Your Pusher" is further set in the universe of the comics while a follow-up comment states that the other episodes are in their own multiverse continuity.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 97% approval rating based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Diabolical's animated shorts pack the same supersized punch as The Boys, transposing the original series' scabrous social commentary into a cartoonish medium that's just as much devilish fun–and definitely not for kids." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".