'The Boys' Spin-Off 'Gen V' Was Filmed Around Toronto & Here Are The Locations You Can Visit
Prime Video just dropped Gen V, its new spin-off from its hit series The Boys, and the superhero show will look super familiar if you've spent any time going to school in Toronto.
The series follows a cast of twenty-somethings as they attend a school for superheroes, and it's every bit as vulgar, violent, deranged and sexually explicit as the main series. It's also very Toronto in all the best ways, and you'll likely recognize many of the filming locations in the show.
Gen V is all about that superhero college life, so naturally the show is shot at a bunch of university and college campuses around the city.
In fact, you might have walked the same school hallways as series stars Jaz Sinclair, Patrick Schwarzenegger or Chance Perdomo. You might've even stumbled your way into one of their sets while they were shooting in the city in the spring and summer of 2022.
Here are the most iconic Toronto-area shooting locations you'll see in Gen V, including several that you can visit anytime you like.
University of Toronto Mississauga
The Godolkin School of Crimefighting is actually the Maanjiwe nendamowinan building on the U of T Mississauga campus. You may recognize this building in many of the exterior shots showing the front entrance to God U.
U of T Mississauga's Erindale Studio Theatre is also used for a scene in the second episode of the series.
University of Toronto main campus
If you want to see the school depicted in Gen V, you can easily head downtown and pay a visit to the University of Toronto's St. George campus. Many parts of the university stand in for God U, especially in scenes that are shot outside.
U of T's Massey College and Victoria University are shown quite a bit throughout the series, often with gigantic superhero statues inserted into the background. The EJ Pratt Library also appears in the show.
Sobeys Stadium at York University
York University students and tennis fans might recognize the Sobeys Stadium from Episode 1 of the show. Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is introduced at the stadium in a scene where he faces off against another superpowered student.
In the real world, Sobeys Stadium is know for hosting the annual National Bank Open, which draws top tennis stars to Toronto each summer.
Southwest Center for Forensic Mental Health Care in St. Thomas
The third episode of Gen V revisits a psychiatric hospital first depicted in Season 3 of The Boys. That episode of The Boys featured the well-endowed character known as Love Sausage, and he makes another appearance in this episode of Gen V, though you (probably) won't bump into him if you pay this site a visit.
Love Sausage aside, the Sage Grove Psychiatric Hospital in the show is actually the Southwest Center for Forensic Mental Health Care in St. Thomas, Ont., just outside London.
Stardust Drive-In Movie Theatre
While Gen V largely disguises its Ontario shooting locations as places in and around New York, it doesn't even both to do this with one shooting location in Episode 4. That location is the Stardust Drive-In movie theatre near Newmarket, Ont., about a 45-minute drive north of Toronto.
The drive-in movie theatre keeps its name in Gen V and Little Cricket (Lizzie Broadway) even dons a branded Stardust Drive-In T-shirt for part of the episode.
If there's one location on this list that you should visit for a fun time, it's definitely the Stardust Drive-In.
Claireville Conservation Area
Although much of Gen V takes place on a university campus, part of it also happens in the wooded wilderness.
You can actually visit that wilderness by heading out to Brampton's Claireville Conservation Area, a 540-hectare nature preserve with plenty of hiking trails and scenic views to take in. You probably won't bump into Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy, but one can still hope.
The cast of Gen V has also revealed a bit about what they did on their days off in Toronto. Chance Perdomo, who plays Andre in the show, says the cast went out for some karaoke in Toronto's Koreatown just before they started filming.
"Nathan (Mitchell), who plays Black Noir, he came out and showed some love and we sang a few songs," Perdomo told Prime Video in a promotional interview before the Hollywood actors' strike.
The cast also seemingly celebrated actress Shelley Conn's birthday with a dinner at Planta last September in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood.
If walking the set of Gen V isn't enough for you, you can visit Amazon's Godolkin University website, where you can take a virtual tour of the fictional campus and see just how much they've transformed the shooting locations mentioned above.
You can also get yourself a Gen V student ID card and buy Godolkin University-branded clothing which, of course, is sold through Amazon. The site even features a cheesy promotional video with Patrick Schwarzenegger as Golden Boy.
Gen V is out now on Amazon's Prime Video service, with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays until the finale on November 3.
The series stars Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizzie Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas and Marco Pigossi.
The Amazon series also includes cameos from many stars of The Boys including Jensen Ackles, Jessie T. Usher, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit and P.K. Byrne.
A fourth season of The Boys also started shooting in Toronto last August and wrapped up earlier this year. The series is expected to hit Prime Video after the current Hollywood strikes wrap up, although no exact date has been set.
The Boys has been known to take over parts of the city for its shoots in the past. Roy Thompson Hall on King Street is one of the main sets of the show as home of The Seven, while many scenes are also shot on the waterfront at the George Brown College campus and the Corus Quay building next door.
Did you spot anyone from the cast of The Boys or Gen V around Toronto last year? Let us know where in the comments!
