Patrick Schwarzenegger compares the upcoming college spinoff of The Boys to Euphoria. Euphoria is the hit HBO Max teen series created by Sam Levinson and based on the Israeli series of the same name. It follows Spider-Man: No Way Home and Dune‘s Zendaya as Rue, one of many troubled teens who are struggling with a variety of issues including domestic violence and drug addiction. While Zendaya was certainly the show’s biggest star when it originally premiered season 1 in 2019, Euphoria has made A-listers out of many of its newcomer cast members including Alexa Demie, Sydney Sweeney, Angus Cloud, Hunter Schafer, and Australian heartthrob Jacob Elordi.
The Boys‘ impending spinoff doesn’t necessarily draw a natural comparison to the dark drama. The Boys, which is currently airing season 3 on Prime Video, is based on the DC Comics series of the same name that follows a group of irreverent vigilantes who are dead set on bringing down a satirical version of the Justice League. In September 2020, it was announced that the violent and darkly comic series would be getting a spinoff called The Boys Presents: Varsity, which would focus on a college for young superheroes. The show is currently filming in Toronto with an ensemble that includes Schwarzenegger, who is a recurring cast member alongside Marco Pigossi, and Save the Last Dance and Not Another Teen Movie star Sean Patrick Thomas.
Recently, Schwarzenegger made an appearance on Variety’s Just for Variety podcast. He discussed how much fun he had while on set for The Boys Presents: Varsity, describing the tone as “loosey-goosey comedy.” He elaborated on the approach to the R-rated series, saying it’s “like Euphoria meets superheroes.” Read his full quote below:
This set is really fun, and there’s just a loosey-goosey comedy. It’s kind of like Euphoria meets superheroes.
While The Boys Presents: Varsity is sure to have a much more comic approach than the dour Euphoria, it does indeed seem to be subverting the tropes and expectations of young adult content as much as the HBO series. This ethos is followed all the way down to the casting, which will ask several prominent young performers to subvert their better-known roles in more earnest and palatable YA projects. These cast members include American Pie Presents: Girls’ Rules star Lizze Broadway, Elena of Avalor‘s Aimee Carrero, Project Mc2‘s Maddie Phillips, and Paper Towns‘ Jaz Sinclair.
So far, not much else is known about this college spinoff of The Boys. With filming scheduled to continue through October, it is unlikely that more details will be coming through any time soon. However, what Schwarzenegger promises sounds like the perfect application of The Boys‘ audacious humor to a setting like Professor X’s Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Men comics.
-Featured.jpg)
