Behind the scenes of the dead whale sequence from The Boys

The Boys is sharing glimpses behind the scenes, including the bit where Butcher kills a whale and the courtroom scene where everyone’s head explodes.

Featuring the talents of Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr and many more, The Boys is known for its witty dialogue, unique characters and exhilarating plot. While movies like The Avengers romanticize superheroes, The Boys takes a more subversive approach. It follows a group of misfits who have all been scorned by superheroes and the conglomerate they work for, Vought International, a company that franchises its heroes for theme parks, toys and breakfast cereal. The titular Boys all have vendettas, but their mission to take down the most powerful individuals in the world is anything but easy.

The show’s first season laid out things out wonderfully, but the second was a showstopper. One particularly memorable scene came in the third episode when the main characters were in a boat headed to a CIA safe house, only to be hunted down by the Seven. The Deep (Chace Crawford), the show’s Aquaman equivalent, uses his powers to summon sea creatures to stop the boat from arriving onshore. Astride a whale, the Deep tries to cut them off, only for Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) to plow full steam ahead and impale the animal on the front on their ship.

It’s a pretty bloody affair, but the main characters manage to escape with their lives, although the Deep is pretty traumatized. Now, the show’s creators have started an end-of-the-year “C*ntdown” to celebrate some of the show’s best moments, including this one. The Boys VFX supervisor Stephan Fleet shared some behind-the-scenes photos and they do not disappoint:

That fake whale is so impressive. I can only imagine how long that scene took to finish! I’ve recently begun watching Gossip Girl, and every time Chace Crawford appears as the charming Nate Archibald, I cannot stop thinking about that wild scene where the Deep gets drugged by the Church of the Collective and hallucinates that his gills (voiced by Patton Oswald) can talk. It’s a pretty jarring, but hilarious, comparison.

The second season finale left viewers off with a massive cliffhanger, with the Boys going their separate ways despite the rise of a new enemy with the power to explode people’s heads telekinetically. They made a huge splash during a courtroom scene where they exploded the heads of half the people in the room.

We got a look behind the scenes of that sequence, as well:

Fans will have to wait and see what other juicy tidbits the 12-day “C*ntdown” provides!

If you’re feeling festive this holiday season, then consider leaving out milk and cookies for Homelander! Artist Bosslogic did a great mock-up of what it would look like to have the star-spangled superhero coming down your chimney on Christmas Eve:

I think I’ll have to pass on this one! If I were to wake up in the middle of the night to see glowing red eyes staring back at me, I would be feeling anything but jolly.

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h/t Bleeding Cool