The Big Picture
- Gen V explores the challenges faced by young superheroes as they navigate their superhuman abilities and try to become productive members of society.
- The series humanizes both the heroes and villains, allowing viewers to understand the moral dilemmas and difficult decisions they face.
- The older generation in Gen V hampers the growth of the next generation, corrupting their idealism and hindering their desire to contribute positively to the world.
If you think being a teen was rough, just imagine what it would be like if you were trying to control a set of superhuman abilities. Such is the cross that the characters must bear on Prime Video’s upcoming series, Gen V. A spin-off of the streamer’s critically-acclaimed title The Boys, Gen V follows the lives of a handful of up-and-coming heroes as they learn how to perfect their powers and become productive and heroic members of society. At the same time, they’re still just kids making their way into adulthood – a fun twist that complicates the characters’ journeys. In an interview with Prime Video prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, stars Jaz Sinclair and Sean Patrick Thomas opened up about the struggles that the young supes-in-training face and how they aren’t so different from normies.
“In the Gen V world, the kids are still idealistic. They’re not fully formed into either a hero or a villain,” Sinclair says. Sinclair plays Marie Moreau, the main character and an incoming freshman with blood manipulation abilities. “For me, that was a really interesting topic and a really interesting time in all of their lives because I feel like it gives us a chance to know where everybody came from and to watch the unfolding of them becoming the kind of hero that they’re gonna become.” Alluding to the moral dilemmas and difficult decisions that will face the students of Godolkin University, Sinclair adds, “I just find it fascinating because it humanizes everybody. It humanizes the people making the good choices, and it humanizes the people making the bad choices, and I just find that interesting. It leaves a lot of room for potential heartbreak, friendships, and stuff that wouldn’t be possible if we were all fully-fledged adults.”
One of the adults of Gen V, Thomas spoke about how, just like in the real world, the older generation has a habit of ruining things for the younger one. “I think what the show really kind of sets up for you is how youthful idealism, generally speaking, gets corrupted by adults. And I think that we see that in a very kind of literal way on Gen V. And so, how does that manifest itself?” Thomas, who plays Polarity, a revered alumnus of Godolkin University and the proud yet overbearing father of Chance Perdomo’s Andre Anderson, will undoubtedly be one of those adults who get in the way.
How the Adults of Gen V Hamper the Growth of the Next Generation
“In this particular case,” Thomas explains, “that manifests itself by young people who really want to contribute to the world and do what they can to help. And the adults are the ones who twist it and corrupt it and make it into something else. And that’s what’s unfortunate, and we see that happening in the real world all the time, every day, that, you know, it’s really, it’s the grown-ups that are screwing everything up.”
The first three episodes of Gen V arrive on Prime Video on September 29.
