The Boys Showrunner Confirms Gruesome Death Was Inspired by Marvel Fans' Gross Thanos Fan Theory

The latest season of The Boys opens up with one of the show's most gruesome moments yet. In the death sequence that has since taken the internet by storm, Termite (Brett Geddes) finds himself in a peculiar situation that ends with the bloody death of his romantic partner. As it turns out, the part was fully inspired by the theory Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) was going to crawl up Thanos' rear-end and expand, killing the Mad Titan once and for all.

On the press tour for the show, The Boys head writer Eric Kripke has confirmed again the moment is, in fact, inspired by the zany Marvel theories.

"Craig Rosenberg wrote the script and deserves most of the blame for it," the writer said in a recent interview with Variety. "These evolve in a writers' room and the evolution of that sequence started with, 'We need The Boys to fight a superhero.' So then we ask, 'What big superhero haven't we done yet?' Someone says, 'We haven't done Ant-Man.' And then someone else says, 'There's that meme of Ant-Man climbing up Thanos' butt and blowing him up. So we should do that. We should give the audience the thing that Marvel can't give to them.'"

Some stars chose to stay far away from that particular set, given the graphic nature of everything going on with the exploded phallus and associated gore.

"I stayed away from that set. I didn't feel like that was something I needed to see," series star Karl Urban previously told Entertainment Weekly about the giant penis set. "After working on the show for two seasons going into a third season, you come to build up a certain desensitization to some of the more graphic content."  

The first three episodes of The Boys Season 3 are now streaming on Prime Video. New episodes are scheduled for release every Friday.

What have you thought about the show's latest season so far? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter!