The Big Picture
The Boys
is filmed in Toronto, Canada, which provides a diverse range of filming locations, from famous landmarks to urban streets.
Vought Tower, home to the Seven, is filmed at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, known for its history in the superhero genre and film festivals.
Season 4 of
The Boys
continued filming in Toronto, utilizing various historical and urban locations within the city.
Throughout its run, The Boys has been awash in American iconography, which makes it pretty ironic that the series was created beyond the border. Nearly every location in the series, from the visually spectacular to the quietly mundane, is shot on location in Toronto, Canada. While nowhere near as massive as the version of New York City presented on screen, it still stands as the perfect metropolis for the world of Vought and has a wide variety of locations for the show to use. Some places are famous ones and others even appear in the series as themselves; the show also isn’t afraid to take advantage of the more obscure parts of the city, even for the few scenes set within other countries. With so much variety, it’s easy to see why The Boys has adopted Toronto as its unofficial home for filming.
The Boys
A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.
Release Date July 26, 2019
Creator Eric Kripke
Seasons 4
Studio Amazon Studios
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Apart From ‘The Boys,’ Vought Tower Has Its Own Secret Identity
When Hughie (Jack Quaid) gets his initial glimpse of Vought Tower where the Seven reside, he’s just as stunned as we are because of its scale and significance, and the real thing is actually just as intimidating. That’s because Roy Thomson Hall is not only one of the landmarks in Toronto, but the main venue for the film festival that is held there each year. Used primarily for wide exterior shots, the tower has already seen its share of the superhero genre, with the interior of the building appearing in the original X-Men film in 2000. The building is also more than familiar with being the home of an evil corporate base, having done so on multiple shows like The Strain and The Expanse, the latter being another highly successful Amazon property.
This isn’t to say that the entire tower has always been home to the Seven. While the interior of the building was shown during the series premiere when Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) sends Hughie to infiltrate the building, the conference room is filmed elsewhere. These days, the appearance of the tower is mostly relegated to exterior shots, complete with a CGI coating. Although it may not be the most featured landmark (at least not on the inside), the sets created for the interior also replicate the famous and distinctive cross-beam design by architect, Arthur Erickson, showing the intent to honor the building without always using it. Perhaps it remains fitting that the most iconic location in the show is also one of the most famous destination points in the city where so much of the series is filmed. Film festivals and tributes aside, the tower is also open to the public for touring.
Toronto Has Many Faces in ‘The Boys’
Although The Boys takes advantage of the largest sites in Toronto, they also make do with many of the quieter parts of the city. When the Deep (Chace Crawford) finds himself involved with the Church of the Collective in Season 2, their headquarters are filmed in the Scottish Rite. Based in Hamilton, the church is no stranger to being the base for exotic cults on film, with shows like Hannibal and The Handmaid’s Tale both filming there, along with Crimson Peak. Another more modest location is the Fallsview Residence, where Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) resides alone in seclusion and retirement.
For the more urban environment, The Boys replicates much of the New York City landscape throughout Toronto. Times Square, which was first presented by Butcher in a looming broad shot during the pilot, has been recreated in Yonge-Dundas Square. The series also uses rural locations to great effect, with the Southwest Center for Forensic Mental Health Care standing in for the Sage Grove psychiatric hospital, where Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) and Stormfront (Aya Cash) oversee mentally ill superheroes under experimentation. Not all locations have been welcoming to the show, however, as during production, one scene involving a bloody massacre—possibly the scene when Homelander (Antony Starr) imagines killing peaceful protesters—was going to be filmed near Mel Lastman Square in downtown Toronto. Only a few years earlier, the area had been the site of a deadly car bombing, which has remained a strong memory in the community. Even though The Boys had been given permission to film there, the producers later moved the scene elsewhere out of respect because of the local outcry.
Related Homelander Sings Karaoke in New ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Image
The first three episodes of Season 4 premiere on June 13.
Some of the locations in The Boys are more based on real life than others. For example, the many political rallies held by Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) in Season 2 are filmed in David Pecaut Square, directly next to the Roy Thomson Hall standing in for Vought Tower. By contrast, when she sends heads popping in Congress, the room isn’t even a real location, but a used courtroom set from Suits several years earlier. A few locations even appear on the screen as themselves, like when Starlight (Erin Moriarty) recruits her former childhood friend through blackmail at the real George Street Diner. For presentations, like when Homelander gives the eulogy for Translucent (Alex Hassell) in the season premiere, large sound stages in the city center are used for dramatic effect.
‘The Boys’ Has Kept the Toronto Tradition Alive
Even though COVID restrictions led to a delayed production, The Boys stayed in Toronto for Season 3 and has since continued into the fourth season. Some locations, like Voughtland, were technically filmed outside the city limits, but well within Ontario. Most locations, though, were still firmly in the city, even the ones meant to be foreign in nature. The decommissioned Soviet base where Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) remains in stasis is actually the Ontario Court of Justice, located right outside Brantford City Hall. The show hasn’t been afraid to use more historical locations for particular scenes, like how the secluded home where Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) is held in serves as a museum, replicating what such homes looked like in the 1800s.
Since it has yet to air, the locations for Season 4 are not yet publicly known, but from what we do know, however, the series returned to Toronto for filming, continuing its long residence in Canada from the beginning, exploring locations both familiar and unfamiliar to the series already. Given the political nature of this newest season, it might not be a surprise to learn that the old rallies in David Pecaut Square have made their return, as has the Vought Tower itself, and new locations also appear to be present. With yet another season confirmed to be in the works, it can be safe to assume that Toronto will have its hands full for many years to come with The Boys.
The Boys is available to stream on Prime Video in the US.
Watch on Prime Video