Excitement for the second season of hit superhero series The Boys is heating up, and now show creator Eric Kripke is here to give fans of the show a cheeky little surprise, revealing that Amazon will be releasing a short film focusing on Karl Urban's intrepid, foul-mouthed leader Billy Butcher. The short will fill some of the gaps left between the first and second seasons, with Kripke calling the release a "pretty substantial thing".

"We had a whole storyline in episode 2, it's not really spoiling anything, season 2 begins with Butcher MIA [after discovering Homelander, Homelander Jr., and Becca Butcher] and then shows up. In episode 2, we had shot something that really revealed where he went and what his experiences were. It ultimately didn't end up fitting that way into the episode. It made Butcher's story a lot less mysterious and intriguing...It was better to not know in that episode."

But, leaving the material on the cutting room floor felt like too much of a waste, and thus Kripke and his team came up with a rather elegant solution: release it separately as its own short film so that audiences can still live through the trauma alongside Billy, but without affecting the pacing of the rest of the show.

"But we had these scenes. We strung them into a short film called "Butcher"... it'll work as a companion piece to the show. There's actually references in the show that you won't understand unless you see this thing as it's really tied into our plot."

According to Eric Kripke, the plan is to release the short film "sometime in the middle of the release of the series."

Coming courtesy of Amazon Prime, The Boys is based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The series is set in a universe where superpowered individuals are recognized as heroes by the general public and owned by powerful corporation Vought International, which markets and monetizes them. Outside of their heroic personas, most are arrogant and corrupt.

The series primarily focuses on two groups: The Seven, Vought International's premier superhero team, and the titular Boys, vigilantes looking to keep the corrupted heroes under control. If you have not yet seen The Boys, consider stopping whatever you're doing and giving it a go as it is a funny, violent, starkly satirical look at the world of superheroes.

The first three minutes of the first season 2 episode was recently released, introducing The Mandalorian's Giancarlo Esposito as a new character. Though the series has strayed somewhat from the comics, Kripke has previously referred to the second season as "crazier, stranger, more intense, more emotional. In fact, it's too much, so the Surgeon General has insisted we air the first three episodes on September 4, then air the remaining five episodes weekly after that. We wanted to give you time to freak out, digest, discuss, come down from the high before we give you another dose."

The Boys series 2 is due for release on September 4. This comes to us from Collider.