Spoiler alert: This post contains plot details from the Season 1 finale of “Gen V.”
Antony Starr and Karl Urban — who star on Amazon’s Prime Video drama “The Boys” as Homelander and Billy Butcher, respectively — reprised their roles in the Season 1 finale of “Gen V.” And it turns out they were gracious enough to do it on their “day off” from filming as Homelander assists some fledgling supervillains and Billy ties the Supe virus storyline to “The Boys” Season 4.
“Of course with Homelander, we were always kicking around, ‘When do you want to see him?’ And, ‘When do you want to pull that card?’ Because it’s a rare thing, and we didn’t want to squander it,” “Gen V” showrunner Michele Fazekas told TheWrap of Starr’s cameo. “It had come up throughout the season, and then it just made sense as the sort of thing to happen in the finale.”
In Episode 8 — titled “The Guardians of Godolkin” — all hell breaks loose on the Godolkin University campus after the ultra-powerful Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) release the Supes who were being experimented on in The Woods, clearing the path for them to murder any human they come across — or any opposing Supe who gets in the way of their revenge.
Homelander makes his entrance after Marie (Jaz Sinclair) blows up Cate’s arm for attempting to mind control Jordan (Derek Luh and London Thor). He flies down to apparently put an end to the mess — but first, he has a question for Marie. His intentions may be more malicious than they first seem.
“What kind of animal are you? Do you like attacking your own kind? Stay back,” Homelander says before using his laser vision to blast a confused Marie.
The scene then shifts to a pleased Homelander watching the news, which reports that Cate and Sam are “The New Guardians of God U.” Marie, meanwhile, wakes up to find herself, Jordan, Andre (Chance Perdomo) and Emma (Lizze Broadway) in a doorless, hospital-like facility with no idea how they got there — not unlike the last time Cate wiped their memory.
Then, mid-credits, the show cuts to a scene showing Billy lurking through the halls of The Woods, revealing that “The Boys” character has learned about the Supe-killing virus Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) and Dr. Edison (Marco Pigossi), both of whom are now dead, developed.
“The Boys” creator Eric Kripke told TheWrap that it was his idea to have Billy be the connection between his show and the virus introduced in “Gen V.”
“We were pretty deep into the Season 4 break by the time we were around [the ‘Gen V’] finale, and we sort of knew how we were picking up the ball,” Kripke explained. “We talked about, ‘Well, we should start the first step of that story’ — it’s only a mild spoiler to say that, because it’s obvious, based on the [‘Gen V’] finale, but when Butcher is in Season 4 of ‘The Boys,’ he’s very aware of this virus, and we knew that we were writing to it. Then the question came up of like, ‘Well, how is he aware, and when did he find out about it?’ We started saying, ‘Well, let’s actually show [viewers], when it’s really happening which is over the course of ‘Gen V.’ So it came pretty organically out of that.”
Kripke also emphasized that the two actors shot their scenes during their times off from filming the fourth season of “The Boys.”
“Huge props to Karl and Ant. That’s a lot to say like, ‘Hey, you know how you’re murdering yourself making this show? Well, you know what you want to do on your day off is come out and be that character again on this other show. And by the way, we’re a first season show and we have no money to do it,” Kripke said.
Fazekas said Starr had already come in to film the scene of basking in the joy of seeing Cate and Sam named as the new God U guardians.
“Even Antony had done a little pickup for us where it’s him watching the TV. He had already shot his scene for us, and then we had already wrapped the show out, we were in the editing process, and were like, ‘Oh, can we pick this little piece of him watching TV up on the set of “The Boys?”‘” Fazekas explained. “Everyone was very pleasant and willing to be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do extra work for not my normal amount of money that I make.’ Like, ‘Sure, yeah.’ It felt super supportive, which I thought was amazing.”
The full cast of “Gen V” includes Sinclair, Luh, Thor, Perdomo, Phillips, Broadway, Germann, Conn, Clancy Brown, Sean Patrick Thomas and Colby Minifie.
Fazekas and Tara Butters serve as showrunners and executive producers for the series, which was developed by Kripke, Craig Rosenberg and Evan Goldberg.
The Season 1 finale for “Gen V” is streaming now.
