The Boys Movie Adaptation Nearly Cast Man of Steel Star as Billy Butcher Before Karl Urban Immortalized the Role

In the era of streaming wars and AI challenges, very little can surprise the audience when the dystopian vision of humanity being overtaken by artificial intelligence is already prevalent in the atmosphere. In such a dark world, The Boys shines more brilliantly than ever due to its bloody, gore-filled, gross, and obnoxiously salacious content – because such a creation could only be born from the unbridled morbid imaginations of a human mind.

However, every brilliant creation has a time of its own – too early for the public eye, and it’s censored into the darkest pits of Hollywood; too late and it becomes redundant for the moviegoing audience. The Boys, on the other hand, arrived just in time as Superhero fatigue was rampant in the industry and a satirical critique of that particular genre worked like a perfect salve for the masses.

But, the situation could have gone awfully wrong had “creative difference” not interfered in the early 2010s and uprooted an early movie adaptation of the ultra-violent, dark, and edgy comic series.

The Boys Movie Adaptation That Never Existed

After the groundbreaking success of the irrevocable satire comedy film, Anchorman, writer and director Adam McKay found the courage to chase after one of the most uncensored comic series and adapt it for the big screen. The comic, written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson, contained sensational material that would make Will Ferrell’s Anchorman franchise look like 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most disturbing.

The Boys defied established comic tropes and broke the glass ceiling on what could be achieved if only a creative imagination were allowed to run wild and unchecked. The ambitious film adaptation that took root in McKay’s mind in 2008 teamed up with scriptwriters Matt Manfredi, Phil Hay, and Seth Rogen in 2009. The budding idea ultimately became a full-fledged project in August 2010 when the director spoke about the merits of filming the adaptation in 3-D.

By March 2011, Adam McKay was running full steam ahead with the project, going so far as to address casting by dropping a few big names at the prestigious Comedy Awards. However, in February 2012, the film was abandoned shortly after getting picked up by Columbia Pictures over cited creative differences between the studio and McKay. The Boys movie never came to pass.

Adam McKay’s Unfulfilled Dream for The Boys Adaptation

Despite being in various stages of production and development between 2008 and the mid-2010s, Adam McKay’s The Boys adaptation never truly accumulated a cast for the 3-D film. Riding on a budget of $100 million, which was a considerable amount at the time, the movie came at a time when Marvel was beginning to take over the industry. As such, a satire on the obscene superhero business would have fallen on deaf ears without the necessary context that the audience now has after a decade of exposure.

At the time, McKay almost prophetically claimed, “It’s like a $100 million, Rated-R, anti-superhero movie, so we have to see who bites on it. I’m going Disney #1, or Nickelodeon.” However, notwithstanding the director’s self-inflicted reality check, the film was already brokering a deal with Hollywood A-listers for the leading roles cast. In an interview with MTV News, McKay revealed:

I’ve sat with some people. I really like the idea of Russell Crowe for [Billy] Butcher. We met and had kind of an interesting meeting.

As for the role of Wee Hughie, McKay claimed: “Everyone knows Simon Pegg can take Hughie if he wants,” due to the actor’s resemblance to the character. 7 years after being officially dropped by Columbia, Amazon’s streaming platform, Prime Video adapted the comic and brought back 2 stars from the McKay-era – Seth Rogen as executive producer and Simon Pegg as Hughie’s father.

With The Boys now in its penultimate season, one can only imagine the sheer scope of the Gladiator star Russell Crowe in the role of Billy Butcher that has now been immortalized by the sneering, ruthless, wise-cracking, and yet utterly lovable and irreplaceable Karl Urban.

The Boys Season 4 is now streaming on Prime Video with Season 5 slated to be the last.