[Editor’s note: The following containsspoilersforThe Boys, Season 2, Episode 2, “Proper Preparation and Planning” —full recap here.]
Sometimes, if you’re a big enough fan of something and you’re very very lucky and/or famous, you’ll end up getting asked to become a part of it. That’s how comedian and venerated voice actorPatton Oswaltended up making a surprise appearance in the second season of Amazon’sThe Boys— though he’s not exactly playing a “supe.”
In Episode 2, “Proper Preparation and Planning,” The Deep (Chace Crawford) has hit bottom and is struggling to find inner peace, so of course he drinks some “special” tea. His drug trip, however, takes an unexpected turn when the gills on his chest (which might resemble another, more feminine bit of anatomy) start talking to him, urging him towards self-acceptance. The voice he hears isn’t his own, though — instead it’s the guy who played the rat inRatatouille.
While promoting the newest season ofthe brilliant Peacock comedyA.P. Bio, Oswalt told Collider that his cameo as the Deep’s gills happened because “I was such a fan of that show. I liked the comic book okay, but what they did with those characters and with that world and with the character of Homelander, who you did not… You think, ‘Well, it’s going to be the Boys. It’s going to be those characters.’ But you get just as invested in these evil, damaged superheroes.”
So, like most people, Oswalt tweeted about how much he liked the show after Season 1 premiered, and creatorEric Kripke, already working on Season 2, reached out to ask if he wanted to do something on the show.
Why, you might ask, did Kripke think Oswalt would be right for the role of the gills? “I took a certain perverse pleasure that the guy who was the lead voice inRatatouillecomes in to voice the Deep’s mangina — I mean the guy who was in the Secret Life of Pets 2, a real evergreen superstar when it comes to animated voices. The idea of him being this animated male vagina on this guy’s chest, it was really hilarious to me, man.”
For more mangina details, watch Oswalt and Kripke discuss in the video above, and also check out ourongoingBoysSeason 2 coverage, including recaps and interviews with Kripke, starErin Moriarty, and more.
The BoysSeason 2, Episodes 1-3, are streaming now on Amazon. Future episodes debut weekly on Fridays.
