The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Boys season 4, now streaming on Prime Video
Summary
I liked the Charlize Theron cameo inThe Boysseason 3, but it’s got nothing on the surprise celeb appearances inThe Boysseason 4. Over the past four seasons, I’ve loved the job showrunner Eric Kripke and the rest of the team onThe Boyshave done in adapting Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s original comic. While the show follows the broad strokes of the comic, the show has also melded themes of fame and celebrity. The result has been uniformly impressive on a satirical level, with plenty of room for entertainment industry gags andcameos inThe Boys.
One of the funniest so far has been Charlize Theron’s appearance in season 3, playing an in-universe fictional version of the villainous Stormfront. It’s a solid gag, poking fun at the kind of filmmaking often seen in productions like the Marvel Cinematic Universe.However, the new season has even wilder cameosinThe Boysseason 4 castthat caught me completely by surprise, and I can’t stop thinking about them. Both seem to play into overarching character arcs and themes for the season, and also happen to be hilarious.
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Will Ferrell’s The Boys Season 4 Cameo Is Even Funnier Than Charlize Theron’s From S3
Ferrell Plays An Inspirational Coach In A-Train’s “Origin” Movie
While Charlize Theron’s cameo inThe Boysseason 3 premiere was great, it’s nothing compared tothe unexpected and perfectly executed appearance from Will Ferrellin season 4’s second episode, “Life Among the Septics.” The cameo occurs during the filming of an in-universe movie, dramatizing A-Train’s origin story. The heavily sanitized plot of the movie presents Ferrell as the tough but lovable coach who helped inspire A-Train to get off the streets and become a hero. Ferrell isn’t necessarily a bad guy in his sequences when filming halts, but he’s portrayed as a dopey actor.
Ferrell is portrayed as more focused on his Oscar prospects than making an authentic film, a far-cry from the largely comedic and personable version of Ferrell that audiences have gotten to know over the last few decades. As a fan of Will Ferrell, it’s far from the only time I’ve seen him poke fun at himself and his career. Films likeFerrell Takes the Fieldhighlight howWill Ferrell can poke fun at himself, much as he does inThe Boys. However, the Prime Video series adds a secondary layer to the cameo by highlighting how it impacts A-Train.
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The BoysUses Will Ferrell’s Cameo To Highlight A-Train’s Internal Struggle
The Boys' Will Ferrell cameo is great, for more than just giving me a little bit of unexpected Ferrell comedy.It’s also hard to imagine howThe Boyscan do a better cameo that fits into the show’s overall arcswithout being distracting. While there have been fun celeb cameos in previous episodes of the show,The Boysseason 5 will have trouble being more satirically on point than what happens in Ferrell’s appearance, as it plays into the show’s commentary about celebrity and corporations whitewashing the truth while also playing intoA-Train’s overarching story-arc inThe Boys.
A-Train’s brief and frustrating talk with the uncaring director is perfectly countered by Ferrell’s show-boating performance, which plays into every cliche sports movie trope. It’s a silly beat that doesn’t overstay its welcome.The fact that it also plays into the character arc for A-Trainand helps set up his growth for the season gives it a sense of importance that the fun but ultimately minor Theron cameo can’t quite match. That’s why I think it’s better than Theron’s season 3 cameo — but it’s not the best celeb cameo inThe Boysseason 4.
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Tilda Swinton As A Lovelorn Octopus Is Casting Brilliance
As good as the Will Ferrell cameo is inThe Boys,Tilda Swinton’s surprise role as the Deep’s octopus loveris even better. It’s something I could never have expected, but works so well when she’s introduced in episode 3, “We’ll Keep The Red Flag Flying Here.” Swinton is an Academy Award-winning actor who has brought some uniquely bizarre characters to life over the years. Her latest is the octopus, who communicates telepathically with the Deep. The Deep is doing his best to hide her, which makes their romance an unlikely source of drama and comedy for the show.
It’s quietly a great showcase for Swinton, who has appeared in similarly hilarious comedies likeDocumentary Now!andWhat We Do in the Shadowswith an equally committed performance. This one is easily one of my favorites, a fully committed vocal performance full of yearning and tragedy, all centered around one ofThe Boys' most cartoonishly awful characters. Tilda Swinton and Will Ferrell’s cameos inThe Boysare fantastic and surpass the (still pretty great) appearance by Charlize Theron in season 3.
The Boys
Cast
The Boys is a gritty and subversive take on the superhero genre, focusing on a group of vigilantes who confront powerful superheroes abusing their abilities, exploring themes of corruption and moral ambiguity in a world where heroes are not always what they seem.
