Marvel fans are gearing up for their next big project in Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel. The Disney+ series promises to be a coming-of-age story, reminiscent of the fun vibes given by Spider-Man: Homecoming. However, there’s another drastically different superhero show that just dropped three new episodes: The Boys.
The Karl Urban-led show couldn’t be further from the upcoming MCU adventure if it tried—it’s violent, loud, raunchy, and truly insane.
On top of all that, one of its key qualities is how it serves as a parody of the superhero genre as a whole. The show’s second season made a specific point to throw shade at Avengers: Endgame big female team-up moment—with the writers justifying their angle by claiming the entire sequence to have been pandering.
With Season 3 having just landed, many were probably shocked to see the unexpected Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness connection in the premiere’s opening minutes. Well, now it’s been revealed that the whole circumstance was completely unintentional.
Accidental Doctor Strange 2 Connection
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for The Boys Season 3 Premiere.
In an interview with Variety about The Boys’ Season 3 premiere, showrunner and executive producer Erik Kripke talked about one of the many elephants in the room: that big Charlize Theron cameo.
In Season 3’s first episode, audiences are treated to a pivotal confrontation between The Seven and Stormfront in the opening minutes of the in-universe Vought-produced movie, Dawn of the Seven.
Instead of being played by Aya Cash as she is in that universe’s real life, this new fictional version is surprisingly revealed to be played by Charlize Theron. The actress also happened to have a massive cameo as a purple-energy superhero, Clea, in Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. So was this intentional?
According to Kripke, it wasn’t purposeful and was pure coincidence. The showrunner noted that “like most cameos on [their] show, it follow[ed] the rigorous and stringent screening process of whoever returns Seth Rogen’s phone calls:
“Like most cameos on our show, it follows the rigorous and stringent screening process of whoever returns Seth Rogen’s phone calls… 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.”
Kripke revealed that “[he] did not know [that the] Doctor Strange thing was happening:”
“I did not know this Doctor Strange thing was happening. 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.”
As for another elephant in the room: the penis scene. The showrunner revealed that “Craig Rosenberg wrote the script and deserves most of the blame for it:”
“Craig Rosenberg wrote the script and deserves most of the blame for it… these evolve in a writers’ room and the evolution of that sequence started with, ‘We need The Boys to fight a superhero.’ So then we ask, ‘What big superhero haven’t we done yet?’ Someone says, ‘We haven’t done Ant-Man.’ And then someone else says, ‘There’s that meme of Ant-Man climbing up Thanos’ butt and blowing him up. So we should do that. We should give the audience the thing that Marvel can’t give to them.’ Then someone else raises their hand, hilariously, and says, ‘Didn’t we already do an ass explosion?’ Which we did, in Season 1, with Translucent, which is hilarious.”
He continued, noting that “once you take butts off the table, there’s really only so many orifices you can go in:”
“And so, once you take butts off the table, there’s really only so many orifices you can go in. And it was Craig who mounted that argument. He’s like, ‘Look, the mouth isn’t funny and the butt has been done.’ So we’re going to blaze some new trail through the eye of the needle, as it were. And it was so funny.”
The Boys and Their Connections
It is a funny coincidence how Charlize Theron happened to get two big superhero cameos within months apart from each other. Though, the Doctor Strange part is the only of the two that’ll probably end up sticking. That said, her character might show up again in The Boys at some point; it wasn’t revealed if she’s a normal actor or a supe playing a part.
While Charlize Theron’s appearance may have been an accident, there was another one that was certainly on purpose: Laurie Holden’s Crimson Countess. The character makes her debut in The Boys’ third season as a former member of the superhero team Payback, and both her attire and power set are awfully reminiscent of Scarlet Witch.
Of course, there’s also Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy, who is a riff off of Chris Evans’ Captain America and will play a key part in season 3’s story. The Boys is just having a blast with its Marvel parodies this season.
When it comes to the Amazon Prime show, no superhero property is off-limits—so it’s not like they’re all just picking on Marvel and the studios’ work. After all, its main villain is a Superman knock-off.
The Boys Season 3 is now streaming on Amazon Prime, while Doctor Strange in the Multiverse or Madness will hit Disney+ on June 22.
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