The Boys is a hit superhero series from Amazon Prime, set in a world of violent and corrupt corporate “supes” (people with man-made superpowers created by evil giant corporation Vought.) The second season was even more popular than the first and Amazon ordered two spinoffs in addition to the 3rd season. The first of those is an animated series called The Boys Presents: Diabolical, and we have learned that it is canon and ties into season 3 of The Boys.

By hit we mean it was the first show not by Netflix to enter the top 10 most viewed streaming shows.

The live action series stars Karl Urban (Star Trek) as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games) as Hughie Campbell, Erin Moriarty (Captain Fantastic) as Annie January/Starlight and Anthony Starr as the truly frightening Homelander. Seeing normal people go up against superpowered bad guys is intense, and not for the squeamish. But it’s fun along with the horror and a unique show adapted from a comic series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.

Diabolical is all animated and each episode is in a different animation style, from Korean, to Looney Toons, to French, to Anime, to the original comics from Dynamite. Some episodes are written by the original book writer, Garth Ennis.

The animated spinoff tells “unseen stories within The Boys universe,” but not everything in the show exists canonically with the live action series despite being set in the same universe. There may, however, be a surprising link to The Boys Season 3 that audiences should watch out for, as showrunner Eric Kripke hinted at another connection between the two shows.

“Weirdly, even though it’s not at all canon, obviously, I’ll tease that there’s this kind of unexpected tie-in between Roiland’s episode and Season 3. But in a way that I won’t give away,” Kripke said. Simon Racioppa (Invincible, Teen Titans) is the Diabolical series showrunner.

The voice cast also includes Elisabeth Shue, Awkwafina, Simon Pegg, Don Cheadle, and Giancarlo Esposito. Animation is from Titmouse.

If you’re a Matrix fan you may appreciate that the producers said they are intentionally “ripping off The Animatrix“.

It will help if you’ve seen at least a few episodes of The Boys first, and don’t even think of showing this shocking horror and violence to kids.

The other spinoff is set in a superhero college, which was ordered to series at Amazon. (Rogen and Golberg say that series from showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Law and Order: SVU) has a title, but they can’t reveal it just yet.)

The Boys Season 3, which is set to premiere its first three episodes on June 3, with the remaining five episodes of that series airing every Friday through July 8.

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