Amazon Prime’s The Boys spin-off offers all the satire, gore, and laughs, but far more likable characters than its predecessor. Unlike the plight of Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Butcher (Karl Urban), who are trying to take out any and every supe that they can because they have become so corrupted by the system, the students at God U haven’t had the chance to get that far.
In Gen V, Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) is still optimistic enough to want to be a hero and redeem herself. And after watching 3 seasons of The Boys, that is downright charming. However, there is still room to see our favorites from the flagship series — supes and humans alike — crop up a time or two.
1. A-Train
There is likely no one more recognizable to The Boys brand than the speedster, A-Train (Jessie T. Usher). The character that kicks off the inciting incident in the original series, A-Train runs through Hughie’s girlfriend, Robin (Jess Salgueiro), and prompts the powerless and mild-mannered protagonist to go after supes in the first place. A-Train has a significant character arc in The Boys, but when he appears in Gen V, it’s via flashback before any of this happens.
8 years previous to the events of the series, Marie’s family is watching him get drafted into The Seven. As the first Black man inducted into the superhero team, it is a historic event. It also adds dramatic irony, as the audience knows how that ends up. This appearance nods to Marie’s tragic origin story, but doesn’t distract from the central characters.
2. Madelyn Stillwell
Elisabeth Shue is no stranger to reprising her role as Vought Senior VP Madelyn Stillwell long after her brutal demise in season 1 of The Boys. She comes back in the canonical animated series The Boys Presents: Diabolical, and again in the same flashback that features A-Train. Without missing a beat, Shue finds the satire of the character, as Stillwell proclaims proudly that Vought lives in a “post-racism world.” This sets the tone for Gen V; the series will have the same edge as The Boys, just with a different setting. RIP, Stillwell. We hardly knew you.
3. The Deep
Any scene with The Deep is not enough. Chace Crawford proves his talents far exceed the villainous overtones he portrays in the first few episodes of The Boys, and takes viewers on a crazy ride that we still don’t quite understand to this day. From finding religion, to his constant quest to save every sea creature in the waters, The Deep is the gift that keeps on giving. And that gift continues in Gen V.
After a brief blurb indicating that The Deep was ranked #6 at God U (A-Train and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) were respectively #1), The Lord of the Seven Seas appears in an In Memorium video for Professor Brink (Clancy Brown), who was hugged to death in the fiery grip of Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger). The Deep said it best in his eulogy, “rest in peace, broseph.”
4. Ashley Barrett
How far the hair-wrenching, pressure-filled Ashley (Colby Minifie) has come in her days at Vought. Stillwell’s unexpected murder demanded she fill some immense shoes. And with the Nazi debacle of Stormfront (Aya Cash) and the forever PR nightmare of Homelander (Antony Starr), somehow she always seems to hold it together. In Gen V, she once again has to do damage control.
Golden Boy’s literal explosion at the tail end of episode 1 creates a huge shift in rankings. He was supposed to fill a void in The Seven after several of the members left the team. Concerned his instability has to do with The Woods, Ashley demands that Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) takes care of it. For whatever reason, Ashley continues to be perfect for the CEO of Vought, no matter what the supes throw her way.
5. Adam Bourke
The last place you would think to find the illustrious director of The Dawn of the Seven would be at a college campus, but alas, how the mighty have fallen. Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) has the uneasy task of piecing together an origin story of The Seven after the unseemly truth of Stormfront’s Nazi agenda comes to light. After recasting her with Charlize Theron in the final cut, the movie gets released.
However, the next we see him, he is teaching Emma’s (Lizze Broadway) freshman drama class at God U. After exposing himself to Minka Kelly, he gets rightfully kicked out of the high life and tasked with teaching Performing Arts majors how to act. He’s certainly not enthusiastic about the prospect, and no one else really is either.
6. Courtenay Fortney
While only in one episode of The Boys, Courtenay Fortney (Jackie Tohn) made enough of an impression to merit further inclusion into the universe. Directing the initiative to make supes more relatable in Super in America, she dresses down one of her editors in season 1 of The Boys for making the cut look too TLC. Though it appears to be a blink-and-you-miss-it interaction, her grit and humor in the scene made her fit right in for the universe and Gen V.
She appears in episode 2 to get Marie ready for an interview with Hailey Miller (Leigh Bush) after supposedly fighting off Golden Boy. Immediately spotting Marie as a winner, she later poaches Emma for a reality show that would objectify and misrepresent her. Courtenay is everything that is wrong with Vought and a perfect satirical character.
7. Hailey Miller
Another tertiary character pulled from the The Boys cast sheet, Hailey Miller appears briefly in a confrontational interaction with Homelander – a place you don’t want to be. After Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is let loose upon the world, Vought makes a good show like they have the situation under control and go on television to set the record straight. Homelander, of course, flies off the handle on the very reporter who interviews Marie on Gen V.
Marie speaks to Hailey Miller after Andre (Chance Perdomo) decides to investigate what happened to his friend and misses the interview. Evidently experienced with interviewing supes in the middle of a crisis, Hailey had a better interaction this time around.
8. Vanessa
Both The Boys and Gen V demonstrate the darker side of injecting children with a drug that gives them superpowers. Sometimes things go wrong, as in the case of many children being shipped off to institutes like Red River. Facilities like these house children whose powers are either too powerful or developed too early to be controlled. Hughie encounters this in season 3 when he tries to find information on Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit). He goes to Red River, the same facility where Marie grows up.
There he meets the facilitator, Vanessa (Alex Castillo), who encourages Marie to go to college. Tying the two shows even further together, Marie’s picture shows up when Hughie looks at Vanessa’s computer. Even in a world where everyone wants their children to have superpowers, the world is pretty small.