Which episodes of The Boys: Diabolical are canon? One Kripke tweet settled it — only three made the cut
Only three episodes of The Boys: Diabolical are canon — Nubian vs Nubian, John and Sun-Hee and One Plus One Equals Two — as confirmed by showrunner Eric Kripke.
Canon discourse is the internet's favourite blood sport, and The Boys fandom got a proper dose of it when Diabolical dropped all eight of its gleefully deranged animated shorts on Prime Video. Exploding babies, Looney Tunes-style carnage, a Homelander origin story — lovely stuff, but which of it actually happened? Rather than let Reddit tear itself apart for a decade, Eric Kripke simply logged on.
The tweet that ended the argument
Kripke tweeted shortly after the premiere: "People are asking, so here's the eps of #Diabolical we consider canon". And the list was mercifully short. Out of eight episodes, only three count:
- "One Plus One Equals Two" — written by Simon Racioppa, the Homelander origin story that sets up his whole toxic situation with Black Noir
- "Nubian vs Nubian" — written by Aisha Tyler, starring Don Cheadle as a supe whose daughter tries to save her parents' marriage by recruiting their arch-nemesis
- "John and Sun-Hee" — the quiet, devastating one written by Andy Samberg, of all people
Everything else — the diabolical babies, the Rogen and Goldberg cartoon mayhem — is officially Just A Laugh. Gorgeous, unhinged, non-canonical laughs.
Why the finale mattered so much
The Homelander episode wasn't even planned as canon. It simply turned out too good to waste, as Kripke admitted when discussing the finale:
"This is for sure what happened."
That's the entire vetting process, apparently. Vibes. And to be fair, the Homelander–Black Noir tension it establishes paid off in season three of the mothership show, so the vibes were correct.
If a tweet feels like a flimsy basis for your headcanon, Diabolical showrunner Simon Racioppa and supervising director Giancarlo Volpe backed it up at WonderCon 2022, confirming — with a knowing dig at the dubious nature of tweets — that yes, the post was accurate, and yes, three episodes were canon all along. So there you have it: watch the three for homework, watch the other five because they're brilliant.