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The Boys: Black Noir's Animated Backstory Explained By Showrunner
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke explains the idea to depict Black Noir's history with Soldier Boy using the former's animated imaginary friends.

The Boys: Black Noir's Animated Backstory Explained By Showrunner

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 3

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke explains the decision to flesh out Black Noir’s tragic backstory using cartoon animals. As a member of The Seven, the mute and masked Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) has been The Boys’ most enigmatic supe throughout the show’s first two seasons. As he continued working with Homelander and Vought, season 3 of Prime Video’s superhero series has revealed more about Noir than ever before, including revelations about his past with Payback and its leader, Soldier Boy.

After finding out Soldier Boy is hunting ex-members of Payback for betraying him in 1984, Noir cuts out his tracker and goes off the grid. The Boys season 3 episode 7 explains Vought CEO Stan Edgar proposed Noir hand Soldier Boy over to the Russians and replace him with Homelander, which Noir was more than happy to do, given his contentious relationship with the costumed bald eagle. While Noir sits inside an abandoned Buster Beaver’s pizza, flashbacks are shown via the silent supe’s cartoon imagination that depict all of this, including Payback’s battle with Soldier Boy that left Noir permanently disfigured, brain-damaged, and unable to speak.

In a recent interview with TVLine, Kripke explains the idea to depict Noir’s backstory through zany animation. Given that episode 3 already featured a straight flashback, Kripke and company didn’t want to risk boring the audience in episode 7. Outside of the comedic element, Noir’s cartoon friends go a long way in painting the character in a different light. Read the full quote below:

We knew that he had to have his dark night of the soul alone, and we would have to be inside his head because he has no one he can talk to. So the very first notion was flashbacks, but straight flashbacks, one) they can be a little boring, and two) we did them already [in Episode 3]. We had to have a whole battle to make them exciting. So I didn’t want to do them again.

If there’s an idiosyncratic way that I can tell a story, I’ll take it because it’s way more fun to step out of the box and tell something uniquely. This notion of when [Noir’s] alone, he’s like Snow White, [with] cute animals fluttering around him, just made me laugh.

It’s strongly implied that [the cartoon creatures are] always there. If you look two or three episodes earlier, he’s sketching Buster Beaver in the conference room. We even had a scene that got cut because it just pulled you from the scene… where he was laying out cans of beans in the corners of just different scenes he was in to imply that he’s always feeding the animals.

Although it was likely cheaper and easier to depict Noir’s backstory in animation, the Snow White-esque vibe perfectly illustrates the character’s handicap while revealing the true brutality of Soldier’s Boy’s toxic masculinity. Up until this point, Noir was little more than Vought’s obedient muscle, and Soldier Boy hasn’t been portrayed as entirely unlikable. Buster Beaver (voiced by Looney Tunes veteran Eric Bauza) tells a story of physical and mental abuse, which changes the way audiences have viewed Noir for three seasons and, perhaps, gives them a reason to root for him.

In the comics, Noir’s identity has surprising ties to Homelander. Prime Video’s take on The Boys completely diverged from this and created its own version of the character, who the cute cartoon animals call Irving. The Boys‘ episode 7 Soldier Boy twist reveals him to be Homelander’s biological father. Equipped with this information, Soldier Boy’s agenda has likely changed, and he won’t be helping Butcher and Hughie in the finale. Thankfully, Buster and the other imaginary friends encouraged Noir/Irving to face Soldier Boy and finish what he started in 1984. In a season filled with dance numbers, orgies, and cartoon characters, things are about to get even crazier in its final week.