The Boys’ Creator Spills The Beans On Celebrity Cameos: ‘Story Always Comes First’

The Boys has never shied away from featuring surprising celebrity cameos and the latest season is no exception. Amazon Prime Video’s superhero series has featured a star-studded lineup, including Tilda Swinton, Rose Byrne, Kumail Nanjiani, Charlize Theron, Jensen Ackles, Simon Pegg and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, among others. Season 4 continues this trend with several standout moments that have left viewers in awe. However, one particular scene generating buzz is Will Ferrell’s unexpected cameo, who plays a fictionalised version of himself in an A-Train movie sequence. In an interview with Discussing Film, series creator Eric Kripke explained that while the process is “different every time,” the focus remains on the story. The team looks at who fits the role and is available to join the show.

Kripke shared, “In Jeffrey Dean’s case, we know each other well from Supernatural, obviously. We had been talking for a while about trying to get him into The Boys and his schedule was opening up. At that point, you go into the writer’s room and say, ‘We have Jeffrey Dean if we can find the right role for him.’ Then, we kick around what’s best for the story. The story always comes first. Someone cooked up that character and we needed, basically, an actor who was as ruthless and charismatic as Billy Butcher. The minute that came up, I said, ‘We should do this character because that would be perfect for Jeffrey Dean’.”

“With some of the other cameos, we’ll write in the script something like ‘huge Hollywood star’ and then I’ll talk to Seth Rogen and ask, ‘You have any buddies you want to call?’ I have a much smaller Rolodex than Seth does, but I have a few names I can call, too. Then, we see who’s available and who can play that part,” Eric Kripke added.

Charlize Theron made a guest appearance on The Boys in season 2 and also appeared as Clea in Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness just months before the show’s premiere. During the time, Kripke mentioned in an interview with the Entertainment Weekly that it was funny seeing their show accidentally mirroring what’s happening in the Marvel universe. The show creator described it as “meta on top of meta on top of meta.”

Based on The Boys, an adult superhero comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the Prime Video series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T Usher, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Chace Crawford, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, Cameron Crovetti and Laila Robins in key roles.