The Boys Spinoff Casts Reina Hardesty As Lead

The Boys spinoff series has cast actress Reina Hardesty (The Flash) in its lead role. The series is set at a college within The Boys universe – the only college in America that is exclusively for superheroes, and is run by Vought International. and Hardesty will reportedly play one of the young superheroes in an ensemble that includes already-cast actors Shan Paul McGhie, Aimee Carrero, Maddie Phillips, Jaz Sinclair, and Lizze Broadway. The Boys executive producer Craig Rosenberg is the writer and showrunner of the spinoff series, with The Boys comic creators Garth Enis and Darick Robertson, as well as show producers Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver also involved.

No word yet on character details for Reina Hardesty, or the other characters that have already been cast. If you haven’t yet heard, The Boys spinoff series will be an “irreverent, R-rated show 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.”

So, it seems that a more adult-oriented X-Men concept is at play, with a slight Hunger Games bend. Everything fans have come to love about The Boys, with a younger cast of characters. As Eric Kripke describes it, this The Boys spinoff may be an original work, but it is still very much inspired by the comics:

“I would say it’s loosely inspired by an element of the comics, which is the G-Men. Part of the G-Men is there’s sort of an educational, college experience,” Kripke said while speaking with TheWrap. “And we just used that as a jumping-off point, kind of similar to ‘The Boys,’ where we sort of take an initial notion and then we are going to run with it in our own weird direction. We were just talking and we stumbled onto this idea and we were so excited about it, we took it to Amazon.”

Kripke also opened up about how the spinoff has a lofty (if unexpected) goal: being the realist college show around:

“We think there’s a real opportunity to see another part of the Vought world,” Kripke said. “But probably, more importantly, to make a show that isn’t really made that often, which is what we love about it, which is, as ‘The Boys’ is an unflinching look at reality, the goal for this is to make this superhero show one of the most realistic college shows anyone’s made. And really deal with real college issues and really explore what it’s like to be that age.”

The Boys season 3 is in development. No word on when the spinoff series will arrive.

Reporting by: Deadline