New Gen V Trailer Makes It Clear That Franchise Deviates Hugely From Source Material Once Again
It appears that the depraved story of John Godolkin will not be featured in the series at all.
Gen V, an upcoming spin-off of The Boys TV series, just got a new bloody R-rated trailer that sheds a little more light on what to expect from the show.
In particular, it now seems clear that the story will unfold in a rather predictable way, with Vought International secretly conducting experiments on the students of Godolkin University.
With that in mind, it seems that the show's creators have decided to almost completely drop the original comic's extremely dark and disturbing story, except for a reference to it in the university's name.
In the original comics, John Godolkin was the leader of the G-Men, a clear homage to Charles Xavier and the X-Men of Marvel Comics.
However, unlike Xavier, Godolkin was actually a depraved psychopath who sexually abused the members of the G-Men since childhood and killed and reanimated those who disobeyed him.
Given the original story and the obvious parallels between Godolkin University in the series and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, fans wondered if John would appear in the series.
Unfortunately, while the new trailer features several new members of the university's staff, such as Clancy Brown's Professor Rich Brinkerhoff and Shelley Conn's Indira Shetty, it seems that the university merely bears Godolkin's name without him in sight.
This is not really surprising, considering that the show often changes major elements from the original comics, such as the stories of Black Noir and Soldier Boy.
It also often tames down the most horrific and depraved moments of the original, like the Herogasm episode from season 3, which was far less obscene and disgusting than the story arc from the comics.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, as the original was often criticized for being shocking for the sake of being shocking, while the TV adaptation often offers even better alternatives, like the aforementioned changes to Soldier Boy's character.
For now, the spin-off series looks quite promising, and fans are eager to see if it will live up to expectations.
The first three episodes of Gen V will be released on September 29, 2023.