“The Boys” pulled off quite an unexpected cameo appearance in the season 3 debut and showrunner Eric Kripke explains how it happened…
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN “THE BOYS” SEASON 3, EPISODE 1 ‘PAYBACK’
“The Boys” has become synonymous with some of the most jaw dropping scenes in all of television from exploding a superhero with an anal bomb to crash landing a speed boat into a whale but the season 3 debut managed to pull off one of the craziest scenes yet — and we’re not talking about the tiny Supe crawling up his boyfriend’s penis.
Instead, this wild scene served as the opening moments of “The Boys” season 3 debut with the fictional movie “Dawn of the Seven” enjoying a premiere screening.
The stage was set with Homelander confronting his now ex-girlfriend Stormfront after she was revealed as a 100-year-old Nazi, who was seeking to build a new master race starting with the most powerful man in the world. Unlike the real version, however, Homelander’s cinematic moment came opposite none other than Oscar winner Charlize Theron.
So how exactly did “The Boys” manage to pull her into that role?
“Like most cameos on our show, it follows the rigorous and stringent screening process of whoever returns Seth Rogen’s phone calls,” ‘The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke revealed to Variety. “And to her immense and everlasting credit — she had just made ‘The Long Shot’ with Seth — and to her incredible credit, she agreed to come on and help us out. I actually feel kind of bad about it, because I’m sure he positioned it like, ‘Hey, do us a favor, pop on camera and it’s a cameo.’ Then the next call is our costume designer, ‘OK, you need to come in and we need to design this super suit.’
“She shows up on a whole big day of shooting with several camera crews and everything. But she was such an immensely great sport and is so funny. I mean, obviously she’s in comedies, but watching her work up close and in person, the level with which she commits to the most ridiculous dialogue that anyone has ever said, it’s absurd. The heart and soul with which she delivers it is so funny and stunning. We were really lucky to have her.”
The scene where Theron portrays Stormfront — the role that Aya Cash played in the actual series — was filmed in studio in Los Angeles while the rest of “The Boys” season 3 was in production in Toronto. The way the scene is cut shows Stormfront having a confrontation with Homelander and the rest of his team but it turns out none of them actually met.
Because Theron was just doing a single day shoot, she stayed in L.A. while Antony Starr, who portrays Homelander, shot his part in Toronto and to this day the two of them have still never met.
Theron’s cameo also came with some seriously funny timing considering she also recently appeared in the Marvel Studios film “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” where she popped up in a post credits scene that closed the movie.
According to Kripke, they had absolutely no idea that Theron was doing a Marvel movie so it just ended up being hilarious timing that she shot something for the show that ultimately aired just weeks after the “Doctor Strange” sequel landed in theaters.
“I did not know this ‘Doctor Strange’ thing was happening,” Kripke said. “My assumption is we asked her before. But I was in the theater watching ‘Doctor Strange’ with my kids and then that cameo came up and I was like, ‘Yes!’ Anything we can do to draw a line between us and Marvel is a good day.”
The first three episodes of “The Boys” season 3 are now available on Amazon Prime Video with new episodes dropping every Friday.
