The creators of Gen V have revealed a scene during the production of the spin-off that caused some “discomfort” to the executive team. Set within the same universe as The Boys, Gen V focuses on the next cohort of superhero applicants at Godolkin University, including Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), who possesses the ability to manipulate blood.
In the series, Moreau discovers her powers after she gets her first period and loses control of her powers. In turn, this leads to the deaths of her parents. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly (H/T Digital Spy), one of the showrunners on Gen V, Michele Fazekas, discussed the “discomfort” experienced by executives.
“That was in the pilot script when I came aboard, and I think that there may have been some discomfort early on from maybe the executive side because it’s girls’ periods,” said Fazekas. The scene helped Gen V to stand apart from its parent series and “gripped” Fazekas and co-showrunner Tara Butters.
“When Tara and I came on, it was one of the things that gripped us. I love that this is where her powers come from. It’s already, not necessarily a traumatic thing, but a very big thing in any girl’s life,” Fazekas added. “It’s like, The Boys is about ‘the boys’ and this is about a girl, a woman. I felt like, out of the gate, this is what the show is.”
Eric Kripke, an executive producer on Gen V and a mainstay showrunner on The Boys, said that while the scripts underwent various drafts during the development stage, Marie’s storyline remained the same. “Sometimes the victims were different, sometimes it wasn’t her parents, but [it was] always the notion that with Marie’s puberty came this onset of adulthood in the most horrific way possible.”
Gen V stars Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Marco Pigossi.
