The Amazon global entertainment head, Jeff Blackburn announced his retirement–as The Boys spin-off revealed its first look.
Amazon has had a massive year in 2022 with its big push on its Prime Video streamer, with the series premiere of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and season 3 premiere for the popular series, The Boys. Last Friday (December 2, 2022) saw the retirement of Amazon’s SVP of Global Media & Entertainment, Jeff Blackburn. The last month had numerous executive members leave the company as they plan to evolve as an entertainment brand in 2023–right as The Boys spin-off series, Gen V showed their first trailer this past weekend.
Blackburn was a well-liked exec within the company and Hollywood as he oversaw all entertainment departments that included Prime Video and Amazon Studios, Music, Podcasts/Wondery, Audible, Games and Twitch, for the past 18 months. He mentioned how his original plans were to take a one-year sabbatical in order to spend more time with his family, as the pandemic took that away from him–a decision which led to his retirement announcement.
Two days before Blackburn’s public announcement, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy addressed the state of their video streaming service saying, “[Video] is a really important ingredient in whether people choose to sign up for Prime or not. We see more and more people signing up to Prime because of the video content…they tend to spend money with us in our stores and our e-commerce offerings. I do think over time we have opportunities to make our Prime Video business a stand-alone business that has very attractive economics.”
With the big marketing campaigns for The Rings of Power and Thursday Night Football this past fall, Prime Video has claimed the number one spot for a subscription streaming service in the U.S. This would be the first time it has surpassed Netflix, as the rankings were based on the research firm Parks Associates. While this was good news for the company, Amazon still has not announced their plans since the $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM.
On related Amazon Prime Video news, Gen V revealed its first look trailer that showed it will be just as gory and topical as its main series–just with a more college setting perspective. The trailer opened at Vought International’s Godolkin University–a school dedicated to raising the next generation of superheroes. While this appeared to have a focus from the teenage perspective of the world of The Boys, it still had shots of familiar characters fans will remember–along with a lovely statue of Homelander on campus.
The known guest stars included A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), and Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne). Here is a list of the cast for Gen V: Jaz Sinclair, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Clancy Brown, Chance Perdomo, Jason Ritter, Alexander Calvert, Shelley Conn, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Marco Pigossi.
The plot was not necessarily clear, nor was the exact timeline it took place from the parent series. However, we can expect a lot of brutal deaths, crimson-red scenes and outrageous moments–let us not forget Herogasm or the special scenes with aquatic life. Amazon has not yet revealed an official release date, but it is expected to be on Prime Video sometime in 2023–and most likely before season 4 of The Boys lands on the streamer.
