Sometimes, even when you’re a Hollywood showrunner in charge of a hit TV series, you can still be impressed by the people you work with. This is the case of Eric Kripke, showrunner of The boyswho, in an interview with Polygon, admitted that he was very touched to learn that legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson was a fan of the series.
Kripke learned this fun fact after contacting Jackson’s agent about a possible appearance in The boys‘ fifth and final season, brought together in episode seven, “The Frenchman, the Female and the Man Called Mother’s Milk”. Jackson voices a hammerhead shark named Xander, who is quite disturbed by the deep for his role in destroying an oil pipeline that killed a whole bunch of fish. (“Disturbed” is perhaps putting it lightly; Alex tells the Deep: “If you put one foot, one fucking simian toe in water, anywhere – an ocean, a stream, a fucking puddle…about Godson, you are dead. You can see how Jackson was the right and only choice to deliver this line of dialogue, right?)
In the interview, Kripke explained how the cameo came together. “We wanted a really distinct voice and who has a more distinct voice in Hollywood than Sam Jackson? So we went to his agent,” Kripke said. “He was our first choice, and we were like: Does he want to do this? It was just a matter of picking up a flyer. But then it came back, Oh yeah, he loves the show and he totally will. Boy, that’s a bucket list moment, man, of Sam Jackson reading your dialogue.
The boys is no stranger to A-list cameos. Charlize Theron appeared as a replacement for Stormfront in the in-universe film Dawn of the Seven in the season three premiere, “Payback”, and Tilda Swinton voiced the octopus Ambrosius, another underwater friend from the deep – although his relationship with Ambrosius was of a significantly more intimate nature than the one he had with Alex – throughout season four.
Kripke also told Polygon that executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg helped land many of the show’s high-profile guest stars. “A lot of the cameos that we bring into the show are because Seth Rogen or Evan Goldberg have a relationship with them and can make a call. I lean on them a lot for that kind of thing.” Given that Theron also appeared in Rogen’s Apple TV+ series The Workshopit is not difficult to imagine that he could have made this connection during The boysAlso.
The boysThe final season was rough overall, but Jackson’s appearance was a well-deserved win for the series. The boys The series finale airs May 20 on Prime Video.
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