TV
“Gen V” – Meet the Characters in “The Boys” Upcoming Spinoff Series
A different type of school is set to begin session this Fall in “Gen V”, “The Boys” spinoff series set at college. Today Prime Video announced the “Gen V” character descriptions, along with a new poster, that gives us a better idea of what to expect.
“Gen V” will debut its first three episodes on Friday, September 29, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly on Fridays. The season finale will land on the streamer November 3.
The official synopsis: “Set in the diabolical world of The Boys, Gen V expands the universe to Godolkin University, the prestigious superhero-only college where students train to be the next generation of heroes—preferably with lucrative endorsements. You know what happens when supes go bad, but not all superheroes start out corrupt. Beyond the typical college chaos of finding oneself and partying, these kids are facing explosive situations … literally. As the students vie for popularity and good grades, it’s clear that the stakes are much higher when super powers are involved. When the group of young supes discover that something bigger and sinister is going on at school, they’re put to the test: Will they be the heroes or the villains of their stories?”
Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters are showrunners for “Gen V,” which is said to be “an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities.”
The series cast includes Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Marco Pigossi. Gen V also features guest stars Clancy Brown and Jason Ritter, as well as appearances from Jessie T. Usher, Claudia Doumit, Colby Minifie, and P.J. Byrne, reprising their roles from The Boys.
The official character lineup is as follows:
Jaz Sinclair plays Marie Moreau, an 18-year-old superhero with the ability to control and weaponize her own blood. As an incoming freshman at Vought-run Godolkin University, she is eager to prove she has what it takes to join The Seven, but is sidetracked by a mystery she begins to unravel at the school.Chance Perdomo plays Andre Anderson, a junior at Godolkin University with magnetic powers. He’s Golden Boy’s best friend and the son of famous superhero, Polarity; Andre has big shoes to fill as he’s set to take over the Polarity name once his dad retires. When Andre realizes that something is afoot at the school, he takes it into his own hands to try and figure out the mystery.Lizze Broadway plays Emma Meyer, who is also known by her superhero name, Little Cricket, for her ability to get super small. Though insecure and naive, which often leaves her in compromising positions, she becomes close friends with her freshman roommate, Marie, and together they navigate the mysterious dangers at Godolkin University.Shelley Conn plays Indira Shetty, the dean of Godolkin University. She doesn’t have powers, but her background in superhero psychology and her peerless ability to analyze what makes supes tick make her indispensable to the school. Her goal is to transform Godolkin University into the most elite college for supes and she takes a special interest in Marie when she arrives on campus.Maddie Phillips plays Cate Dunlap, a junior at Godolkin University who is good friends with Jordan and Andre. Cate is able to push people to do anything she commands using the touch of her hands, which she uses to her advantage. Powerful and confident, she’s also Luke’s girlfriend, making her one of the most popular supes on campus.London Thor and Derek Luh play Jordan Li, a competitive student at Godolkin University who will do anything to get to the top. They have a unique ability of changing between male and female forms, through which different powers manifest— the man is dense and indestructible, while the woman is agile and can launch energy blasts. Their distinct sets of powers make them a standout TA at Brink’s School of Crime Fighting.Asa Germann plays Sam, a troubled supe who is desperately trying to escape his unfortunate circumstances. He’s extremely powerful, with super strength and invulnerability. Despite having a good heart, he’s plagued by his hallucinations, which sometimes make it hard for him to discern between what is—and is not—reality. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Luke Riordan, who is also known by his superhero name, Golden Boy, because of his ability to light his entire body on fire. He is a senior at Godolkin University and is in the top rank, having the brightest prospects of joining The Seven. Sean Patrick Thomas plays Polarity, Andre’s father and largely celebrated Godolkin University alumnus and trustee. Polarity expects his son to follow in his footsteps by taking over the Polarity name when he retires. He believes Andre is destined for The Seven and will stop at nothing to make his dream become reality. Clancy Brown plays Professor Rich “Brink” Brinkerhoff, a renowned professor of crime fighting at Godolkin University who taught superheroes such as A-Train, Queen Maeve, and The Deep. He is dedicated to finding the top new talent at Godolkin University to join The Seven, and believes Golden Boy has what it takes to be next. Marco Pigossi plays Dr. Edison Cardosa, a gifted doctor with ties to Godolkin University.
If you’re champing at the bit for more, you can visit the series’ Godolkin University for a brief tour ahead of the series’ debut on September 29.
Reviews
“Interview with the Vampire” Season 2 Review – A Sublime Evolution of AMC’s Anne Rice TV Series
“Do you know what it means to be loved by death?”
Anne Rice is a prolific gothic horror novelist who has eternally changed the shape of vampire fiction. Anne’s literature has flourished for decades, but the film and TV adaptations of her best works have been a mixed bag. Many audiences were ready to dismiss Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire when it first premiered on AMC in 2022, only for it to rise from its grave as one of the year’s best series – horror or otherwise. Interview with the Vampire perfectly captures Rice’s painful pathos that uses the veil of supernatural storytelling and monstrous creatures to explore the human condition. Interview with the Vampire’s second season elevates its moving character development to greater heights and improves upon everything that already worked so well in its debut season. It’s the perfect evolution of this macabre, melancholy love story.
There’s genuine gravitas behind the pomp and circumstance of brutality and bloodbaths that powerfully kick off Interview with the Vampire’s new season. There’s such eloquent and baroque dialogue that’s juxtaposed against grisly, visceral imagery that perfectly captures Anne Rice’s decorated aesthetic. It’s the most important element of Interview with the Vampire and this season absolutely nails it. It’s why this show goes out of the way to call itself Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire rather than simply Interview with the Vampire.
Interview with the Vampire’s second season immediately grabs the audience by the throat and glamors them into submission. It’s gothic horror that holds itself up to the highest standards of beauty, not unlike Lestat himself. It’s fascinating to see how these episodes very much function as an extension to the first season. It’s the continuation of one big story, rather than simply a second season. These episodes are inextricably tied to the first season’s seven installments and it’d be a futile effort to try to jump in with the show’s second season. There’s something to be said for Interview with the Vampire’s complete disinterest in drawing in new viewers while it instead goes all-in on expanding its rich mythology and character development.
To this point, Interview with the Vampire’s second season handles Delainey Hawes’ Claudia recasting in an incredibly austere manner that makes this feel like a sophisticated stageplay. Season two’s eight episodes finish off the second-half of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire novel. While it’s unlikely that this will be the end of the series now that AMC is going all-in with their “Immortal Universe,” this would function as an excellent singular adaptation of one of Anne Rice’s most celebrated works if this were to be the series’ end.
There’s an electric energy to Interview with the Vampire’s second season that gets tremendous mileage out of the first season finale’s major revelation that Rashid (Assad Zaman) is actually Armand, a fellow vampire and Louis’ (Jacob Anderson) lover. These vampires’ mind games and toxic relationship dynamics are fully on display, although this time around they don’t purely apply to Lestat (Sam Reid). Interview with the Vampire gleefully indulges in this territory. Its mental manipulation reaches new heights as Louis descends to devastating new lows. Interview with the Vampire’s second season excels when it comes to the depths of Louis’ eternal sadness and struggles. Anyone who felt pangs of sympathy for him in season one will be absolutely gutted in season two. It’s a harrowing ride, but he’s hardly the only wounded fawn.
This season is thoroughly Louis and Armand’s story, but the narrative gradually morphs into an aberrant love triangle of sorts. Interview with the Vampire’s new episodes provide enlightening and crucial context on how Louis and Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) first met. On that note, the season’s fifth episode is the best hour that Interview with the Vampire has produced and an incredible accomplishment in television. It broke my heart in two and left me weak, drained, and dazed. It’s also shocking how this season’s interviews with Louis and Armand so naturally evolve into a twisted form of couple’s therapy where Daniel plays the role of mediator. It’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but with vampires.
Interview with the Vampire is melancholy and tragic, but there’s also such a playful, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor to all this, particularly when it comes to Daniel’s interjections to Louis and Armand’s storytelling. On the opposite end of the spectrum, this season features exceptional effects work – much of which is genuinely disturbing – that continues to expand upon the series’ supernatural universe in rewarding ways. This season’s visual horrors resonate just as strongly as the psychological ones.
Louis and Armand’s tortuous trip down memory lane digs up tales of Old World Vampires during World War II that operates as a macabre microcosm of inhumanity and insolence. The players may change and borders shift, but hatred and prejudice are eternal. In a world that’s full of supernatural threats and vampire hunters, sometimes human indifference and a broken heart can be the greatest danger and deterrent of all. Delainey Hawes absolutely shines as the new Claudia and she handles this role with as much confidence, charm, and pain as Bailey Bass brought to the character. Claudia’s theatrical performance has her repeat the refrain, “I don’t like windows when they’re closed.” Interview with the Vampire reflects the same philosophy through characters who seemingly want limitless options — even if their lots in life are technically restricted in several respects — as they fight for anything and everything that the world has to offer.
This season also spends a considerable amount of time on several characters’ indoctrination into the Parisian Theatre des Vampires. It’s an effective framework for this particular chapter of Louis and Armand’s story. These sequences are so staggeringly beautiful and a stunning distillation of what Interview with the Vampire represents. It’s such a unique breed of horror that could only be found in this series and harkens back to classical genre storytelling like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or the works of F.W. Murnau or Fritz Lang.
More than anything else, it’s just appreciated that Interview with the Vampire takes the time to indulge in such artistry. Another segment from the same episode feels like the horror stylistic equivalent to Moulin Rouge! and hits all the right notes. This material also becomes a stark representation of being trapped in a role that no longer fits and being resolved to go through the motions while longing for more. It’s a quandary that most vampire stories explore at one point or another, but Interview with the Vampire adds deeper layers to this obstacle. It adeptly taps into the light and darkness that makes vampires what they are.
Interview with the Vampire remains a uniquely special vampire horror story that’s unlike anything else that’s currently on television. It’s thought provoking, timeless, humanizing, and haunting. This season is such a beautiful reflection of what it means to love and truly live — even if the majority of its characters are dead. AMC will hopefully continue to let this interview run for as long as there’s breath in its lungs. It’s a powerful and important counterpoint to the horror genre that sucks blood from ambivalence and apathy so that it can truly take flight and soar.
Season 2 of ‘Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire’ premieres May 12th on AMC.
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