The Finale Of The Boys: Diabolical Is Canon, Connects To Season 3

The adult animated anthology series, "The Boys Presents: Diabolical" was released last Friday, ahead of the season 3 premiere of its Amazon parent show, "The Boys." The bite-sized episodes that constitute "The Boys Presents: Diabolical" are riotously hilarious for the most part, sprinkled with the specific brand of satirical humor that the original show has in spades. 

According to a report by Variety, there are certain episodes in the "Diabolical" animated series that tie in directly with the upcoming season of the parent show, while the rest can be deemed as "a bloody amuse-bouche for Season 3" in showrunner Erik Kripke's own words.

The standout episode which ties in directly with season 3 of "The Boys" is "One Plus One Equals Two," written by Simon Racioppa and directed by Jae Kim and Giancarlo Volpe. This episode serves as a kind of an origin story for Homelander (Antony Starr), who is introduced to the Supes in the Seven and forges a bond with the silent, yet deadly Black Noir (played by Nathan Mitchell in the live-action).

However, things aren't rosy from the get-go (predictably so, as this is Homelander, after all), who feels threatened by Noir's silent strength and decides to jump into a dangerous situation without his help (things go horribly, horribly wrong). Vought executive Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue) also makes an appearance, given that this takes place much before the show's present timeline, and Homelander's obsession to gain her approval has just begun. There's a lot of violence in the episode, which is also a core component of the live-action, underlining Homelander's origins and how he evolved through the years, making it part of "The Boys" canon.

Kripke confirmed to Variety that the finale of "The Boys: Diabolical" is, indeed, canon:

"The finale is canon, yeah. I thought he [Simon] did such a good job with it. I don't think we had any specific plans going in for it to for sure be canon. But he just did such a good job writing and directing it, that watching it, I was like, 'This is for sure what happened.' There is a certain amount of background setup of really understanding the relationship between Homelander and Black Noir and giving us a deeper understanding before Season 3."

In turn, Racioppa also talked about how the episode in question is integral to Homelander's backstory, which forges a direct connection to the live-action:

"It's an episode with a bit of Homelander backstory, so I wanted to make sure that felt as close to the show as possible. It has Black Noir in it. So we wanted to try and make that like a good American-action-animation-influenced episode that feels like it's really connected to the mothership, That is the one most connected episode to the mothership."

"The Boys: Diabolical" is currently streaming on Prime Video. Season 3 of "The Boys" is expected to release on June 3, 2022.