Amazon’s The Boys is currently in the midst of airing its third season, which has introduced Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy and continues the show's tradition of racy imagery and superpowered bouts. The show's popularity continues to rise as well, and has even made the rounds with an important figure in the gaming industry.
Recently, gaming industry mogul Hideo Kojima took to Twitter to discuss his thoughts on The Boys. Beginning by saying that he had “quit after 3 episodes of season 1,” Kojima eventually went on to watch the entirety of the show that had aired. Interestingly, he notes that a project he “had been warming up for a long time” needed to be shelved thereafter due to how similar its concepts were to The Boys at that time. Adding gasoline to this mix, there has now been a direct response from The Boys’ showrunner and lead actor encouraging Kojima to pursue a direct adaptation.
The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke responded to Kojima, stating that together they could “team up and conquer!” Kripke seems delighted and eager to be involved with Kojima on a game centered around The Boys in particular, and also says that they are a “huge fan” of the auteur. It is exciting to see such a response from The Boys’ showrunner, who was also backed in their encouragement of a Kojima-led The Boys game by the show’s lead actor Antony Starr, who plays the sinister Homelander. For now, it is undetermined whether Kojima will actually take Kripke and Starr up on their invitation.
Kripke and Starr wanting Kojima to adapt The Boys instead of simply moving along with his own project is telling of their openness to Kojima’s direction and design philosophies. If Kojima was already milling a similar idea in his head, too, it may imply that he would be accepting of this collaboration with Amazon and everyone involved. Kojima’s own idea seems similar enough that it would be easy to substitute certain concepts, such as “settings and tricks” that differentiated Kojima’s idea from The Boys.
The concept of a “special detective squad facing off against legendary heroes behind the scenes” is still fairly accurate to The Boys, though The Boys are likely more haphazard and irreverent than Kojima’s protagonists would have been. Kojima also notes that Mads Mikkelsen of Death Stranding fame was considered as the lead, but it is unclear whether he was going to play the role of a Butcher character or a Homelander character.
It will be interesting to see if such a project for The Boys actually moves ahead in the future. But as of now, Kojima himself nor Kojima Productions has yet to respond in a public capacity.