Why The Seven's HQ In The Boys Is More Important Than You Realize
Does the headquarters infested by The Boys' central band of costumed mercenaries look a little familiar? It should.
The Boys, which is filmed entirely in Canada, uses the iconic Roy Thomson Concert Hall in Toronto as the set for The Seven's cold, corporate HQ. Originally constructed in 1982 and designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, the building is one of the most identifiable landmarks in downtown Toronto. But there's another reason that fans of superhero franchises might be getting a sense of déjà vu every time The Boys cuts back to headquarters. The interiors shot at Roy Thomson Hall look a lot like a set from a more mainstream superhero series — one that could arguably be credited with setting off the whole cinematic superhero craze.
As Twitter user Colin Cunningham pointed out, Roy Thomson Hall was the location of one memorable scene between Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) in Fox's original X-Men film. The scene is the first in-person meeting between the two powerful mutants. In it, Magneto signs off with the ominous words: "We are the future, Charles, not them," referring to the non-mutated humans that his Mutant Brotherhood conspires to eradicate.
According to the building's website, Roy Thomson Hall has a storied history that includes its use in many other cinematic projects, but its appearance in X-Men is likely the most familiar prior to The Boys. In general, the concert hall has many aesthetic features that make it a compelling futuristic vista, but there may be a more meta reason that the location scouts selected it to be utilized on Amazon's latest hit show.
The use of Roy Thomson Hall may be part of the satire
The Boys is Amazon's irreverent send-up of the entire superhero genre, a disturbing show about an amoral team of corporate crime fighters adapted from Garth Ennis' equally disturbing comic series. For the record, Ennis is the same twisted genius that birthed Preacher, the comic on which the FX serial is based. While that series can often be a bit bleak, The Boys is widely considered Ennis' most nihilistic work.
Ennis' series came at a time when a lot of other edgy creators were thinking critically about the entire superhero genre that flourished during the Golden and Silver Ages of comics. Since the late 1980s, with the appearance of works like George R.R. Martin's shared world anthology Wild Cards and Alan Moore's Watchmen, savvy creators had been at work deconstructing the costumed hero motif. The creative team responsible for The Boys on Amazon likely knew and understood this history, and it's altogether possible they selected a familiar location from the original X-Men film as a nod to their series' satirical bent.
In comic form, The Boys ran for 72 issues between 2006 and 2012. That's an impressive streak for any indie comic. The first season of the streaming adaptation on Amazon only included 8 episodes, but more are planned thanks to an early second season order, and the return of The Boys likely means the return of Roy Thomson Hall as a recurring location.
Now, if the producers could only wrangle meta guest appearances out of Stewart and McKellen, they'd really be onto something.