The Real-World Marvel Inspiration Behind The Boys' 'Girls Get It Done' Scene
"Tell us how fun it is to have all this girl power!"
The Boys' superheroes/movie stars Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Stormfront (Aya Cash) are asked this same question over and over as they sit through countless interviews to promote the new female empowerment version of their superhero team The Seven in season 2. Behind them are bold, proud posters shouting, "Girls get it done," at the cameras while Starlight tries to hide her distaste for the whole experience.
Fans probably remember the cheesy Vought slogan for the satisfying beatdown scene in the season 2 finale, when Starlight, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Maeve (Dominique McElligott) channel their inner Power Puff Girls to kick Stormfront into the ground. It's been compared endlessly to the controversial all-female superhero moment in Avengers: Endgame that inspired the fight scene, but the bit only works so well because it's set up from the very beginning.
With newcomer Stormfront joining The Seven at the beginning of the season, publicist Ashley (Colby Minifie) capitalizes on the team's three women members by forcing them into a press junket centered on the new slogan. The episode 2 scene shows journalists asking them about their relationship status and "Can you tell us a little about how girls get it done?" and "Do girls make better heroes than boys?" repeatedly. It's a storyline that carries through the season, with their in-universe movie Dawn of the Seven getting its own awkwardly forced girl power moment, and ends in the finale when Frenchie (Tomer Capon) proclaims, "Girls do get it done," as they beat up Stormfront.
It turns out it wasn't just the final scene that was influenced by Marvel: Those interviews Starlight and Stormfront are forced to smile for? They were inspired by the Captain Marvel press tour.
Brie Larson's press tour for Captain Marvel was a huge inspiration
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Boys writer Rebecca Sonnenshine said these scenes were inspired by Brie Larson's press junket for her film Captain Marvel. It was happening around the time they were writing the episodes, and Sonnenshine noticed that "every reporter asked the exact same question. You know, like: 'How does it feel to be a female superhero?'"
She was frustrated that they didn't have anything else to ask, saying, "I could picture Brie Larson trying to answer these questions. The same question again and again and again and again." While Sonnenshine loved Captain Marvel and the female empowerment inherent in it, she disliked that the press focused solely on the gender aspect and that Marvel was trying to sell it. "I think it's all about the commodification of something positive," she said.
In fact, Larson's press tour garnered a fair share of its own controversy at the time, though for a slightly different — but related — reason. Larson made a comment to Marie Claire about wanting more diversity in film journalism, saying, "About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male." She made it a point to try and have more inclusive interviews, especially including women of color. There's undoubtedly some relation there: Diverse interviewers might ask more diverse questions.
On The Boys, the Supes have the unique identity of being both superheroes and movie stars, offering them the opportunity to poke fun at film tropes as well as real-life actor experiences. Evidently, the writers are happy to take full advantage of it.