'The Boys' crew digs into why that whale scene is just the tip of the iceberg for an even wilder S2

There’s just a little less than a month until Season 2 of Amazon’s adaptation of The Boys returns with eight new episodes picking right up from where Season 1 left off — and we caught up with the cast and crew to talk about everything from whale-icide to new Supes. As part of Amazon Prime Video CTAM press day, The Boys executive producer/showrunner Eric Kripke joined two panels for his show: one featuring members of The Boys, and a second featuring some of the Supes.

All together, they revealed new specifics about the upcoming season, which introduces Aya Cash (You’re the Worst) as the new Supe (and thorn in Homelander’s side), Stormfront, and the cult leader Seth Reed, played by Malcolm Barrett (Timeless), amongst others.

They acknowledged that fans are still talking about the scene released in July that shows The Boys destroying The Deep’s (Chace Crawford) whale, Lucy.

Actor Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk) added a little more context to the scene, telling reporters, “When they broke the whale story, they had us all in the office, in the hall looking at the storyboards. They said it would be shot on the water, with helicopter shots and no green screen. It would be an animatronic whale on the beach. And the First A.D. offers, on his own, that there would be air-conditioning inside the whale so it would be nice and cool. So, we get to the whale on the shoot day, and it’s 90 degrees and 120 degrees inside the whale.”

In hysterics, Urban chimed in that it was Alonso’s “diva moment” for the show as he watched the actor sweating and getting more agitated, yelling, ‘Can we get some AC in the whale?’”

Alonso copped to his meltdown and added that he and Jack Quaid (Hughie) also spent many takes getting stuck inside the whale guts. “We’d try to walk out of the whale for a scene, but because the goo would dry, our bodies were stuck to the whale.”

The cast also promised that the whale is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the completely insane things coming in Season 2. Urban said, “It was interesting going into Season 2 because Eric got the gang together and told us that he didn’t want to go bigger and have more special effects. But he wanted to dive deeper into the characters and test them. So we get to see how they individually deal with [what’s thrown at them]. It was a continual process of upping the stakes leading to a crescendo. But then we also went bigger! It really packs such a punch.”

On the character development side, Karen Fukuhara (The Female/Kimiko) revealed that she is going to get less feral in Season 2. “Even when Eric and I spoke back in the beginning of Season 1, he said that he didn’t just want Kimiko to be this weapon and totally feral. You’ll see that in this season and she has this connection to Frenchie (Tomer Capon) that’s changing too. There’s a lot more communication.”

As for Frenchie, Capon said that his character will get a fleshed out backstory: “Season 1 started touching on his trauma in regards to Mallory (Laila Robins) losing her grandchildren in the fire. Season 2 will explore Frenchie’s part in that story, and why he became one of The Boys.”

On the Supes side, there will be plenty of ego fireworks between Homelander and Stormfront, which will impact the entire dynamic of the Seven. However, Starlight will remain the moral compass of the extremely morally deficient group. Erin Moriarty admitted that she does have some fellow character envy for those around her that get to have “laser tits,” but that “it’s a pleasure to play a character who has a stronger moral compass than I personally do.” But she warns that some tarnish is coming as Starlight taps into her darker side more.

Last but never least, the Supes cast were all asked about how much they wonder about what Black Noir’s (Nathan Mitchell) deal is, since he’s such a silent enigma in the show.

Antony Starr laughed and said that he loved how much of an enigma the character is. “I focus on the fact that he’s Vought’s pitbull for hire…but I ask, ‘Who the heck is this guy’ in every scene I have with him.” Aya Cash added with a laugh that the real joy was watching Mitchell come into any Black Noir scene, “Because Nathan knows exactly what’s happening.”

The Boys Season 2 arrives on Amazon Prime Video with the first three episodes and new episodes available each following Friday.