The Boys Production Crossed A Major Line For The City Of Toronto
The following article contains information about a disturbing crime and the consequent deaths of victims.
Amazon Studios' internationally successful series "The Boys" is known for presenting controversial material to its audience. There is no shortage of disturbing violence or gory moments that make you want to turn away from the screen, scenes of furious protesters and violent rallies that parallel current events are featured from time to time, and the show's convincing presentation of white supremacist ideologies in the form of the neo-Nazi Supe Stormfront (Aya Cash) has even resulted in spewings of hate and negative commentary toward the actor on social media (via Refinery 29).
These attention-grabbing elements add to the chaos that exists between the diabolical Supes and the ordinary people who want to stop them from committing their heinous acts. Each season of "The Boys" features a never-ending list of bizarre moments including kinky acts, exploding bodies, and outrageous incidents that just go way over the top. One scene, however, was all too real for the community in which it was supposed to be filmed.
A scene where a Supe attacks a crowd faced vehement opposition
One particularly violent scene in Season 2 of "The Boys" that was scheduled to be filmed at Mel Lastman Square in Toronto in November 2019 garnered so much negative attention from locals and city officials that the shoot was canceled (via Toronto Sun). Residents complained that the scene in question, which called for "people screaming and running ... as well as a considerable amount of fake blood" as a result of a Supe attacking a crowd of 450-odd people, would too closely resemble an incident that occurred a year prior, when 25-year-old Alek Minassian drove a van through that same square, killing 10 and injuring 16.
Toronto Councillor John Filion was shocked by the producers' choice to film the immensely bloody sequence near the scene of a massacre that was still fresh in the minds of the Canadian people and immediately took action when he heard of their plans. "There are people who work in this building, who went out onto Yonge St. to try to help the van attack victims — many of them are still traumatized. And think about the families and loved ones of those victims," he explained.
Following the outcry, the show's producers ultimately decided to find a different location to shoot the scene, so it does appear somewhere in Season 2 (via TV Guide). And while it has not been officially identified, its description matches the one in Episode 5 in which Homelander imagines murdering a large crowd of people.