‘Gen V’ Team Unpacks the Reveals in Cate’s Flashback Episode, Considered Taylor Lautner Instead of That Soldier Boy Cameo
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Episode 6 of “Gen V,” titled “Jumanji” now streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.
This week’s “Gen V” came with a pleasant surprise for fans — and we’re not even talking about Thursday’s Season 2 renewal news that hit just before the episode arrived.
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The installment featured the much-teased cameo of Jensen Ackles’ “The Boys” supe Soldier Boy, who appears to Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Andre (Chance Perdomo) and Jordan (Derek Luh/London Thor) as they travel through Cate’s (Maddie Phillips) fractured mind while she’s breaking down from doing too much brain-wiping/un-wiping of her friends on behalf of Dean Shetty (Shelley Conn).
Soldier Boy, who in “The Boys” universe is currently under lock and key in a government facility following the events of Season 3, says he’s there because he was Cate’s first crush and the object of her first masturbation session. So why wouldn’t he be the one who is walking around in her mind giving out guidance on surviving the crumbling dream world to passersby, only to explode soon after relaying the advice?
According to “Gen V” co-showrunner Michele Fazekas and executive producer and “The Boys” creator Eric Kripke, the Ackles cameo was actually their second idea after first proposing the short-lived dream guide to meet the God U students/Cate’s teen heartthrob should be actor Taylor Lautner.
Find out why they ended up going in another direction, and how the flashback episode revealed some “shitty” secrets about more characters than Cate as we approaching the “Gen V” Season 1 finale, in Variety‘s interview with the producers below.
For Episode 6, the majority of the plot takes place in Cate’s mind, after Andre, Jordan and Marie find out about Cate’s deception and brain-wiping on behalf of Dean Shetty. Why did you choose this format, and what it revealed about the other characters’ own dark choices in the past?
Michele Fazekas: A show that didn’t have our superpowers would do a flashback episode. We can do a flashback episode where the other characters can live in Cate’s traumatic childhood memories. That was really attractive, because she did such a terrible thing and it was such a betrayal. When you go through all of that, you have an understanding of why she felt like she had to do this.
And then I really liked that it bled into all the other characters, and it’s clear: No one here is without sin. Everyone has kind of fucked up — but what are we going to do with that now? If we can accept we all did shitty things in our past, now what are we going to do?
Where did the idea to bring Jensen Ackles’ “The Boys” character Soldier Boy in for a brief cameo in Cate’s mind come from, and how did you get Jensen on board to come back for the short bit?
Eric Kripke: In one of the early drafts of the script, it was meant to be a guide in Cate’s mind that shows up, lays out a couple of rules, and then explodes. If I remember correctly, in the earliest drafts it was Taylor Lautner. And the characters were wandering through the woods, and then they’re like, “Taylor Lautner?!” And he’s like, “Ya, I’m Cate’s crush! Cate used to masturbate to me. Anyway, here’s the rules.” And then he blows up.
Fazekas: Still died in the same way.
Kripke: And it was a shorter scene. And I don’t remember whether we ever went to him, or he had the good sense to just pass immediately. But we were like, OK, so what should we do? We were always thinking, we really should get Soldier Boy into the spinoff, and we were looking for a part. We said this is the greatest, because it’s hard to get him into the real world because he’s technically in a CIA basement somewhere unconscious. So this felt like a really smart and fun way to bring him in.
I called Jensen and said, “You’re suiting up! We need you!” He was great, because he was shooting “Big Sky” at the time, so he moved his schedule around and flew out. His only request was, “I think it could be funnier.” I was like, absolutely.
I was gonna be there, so I said, “I’ll be there, and you and I will just riff and riff and riff.” We just shot so much stuff that I would say only 10% of it is in the episode. You cannot believe how many euphemisms for masturbation we came up with. Countless, countless euphemisms. And then we put in our favorites and that was the scene.
Is Taylor Lautner going to find out for the first time through this interview that he missed out on this job?
Kripke: My secret hope is he’s going to realize his managers never brought this to him, and then make a change.
Fazekas: And then maybe be like, “Second season, I would want to be in!” As most things happen, it worked out better. And I can’t imagine it without Jensen. He was amazing.
Does Dean Shetty’s reasoning for wanting to make the deadly virus for supes, which is what they’ve been cooking up in The Woods lab, contagious have to do with a traumatic personal history with supes we’re not aware of?
Fazekas: She has a real, personal reason for having her feelings about superheroes. And she’s also a behavioral psychologist that specializes in superheroes. So she has a level of expertise on them that is sort of her superpower, in a way. So yeah, she’s got reasons.
How much of what Cate did do you think she thought was for the greater good, and that whatever The Woods is doing here is a good thing?
Fazekas: I think Cate was in an no-win situation. It’s very complicated. I think actually part of her really loves Shetty, and I think Shetty actually really loves Cate at the end of the day. There’s real feelings for each other there. Shetty’s completely manipulative, and Cate is very open to manipulation.
And Cate knows, “I want to protect my friends; I don’t want them to find out about this, if they find out, they’ll be targets.” So her motivations were pure, but she kept getting pushed further and further toward doing really bad things. And it’s ultimately what’s going to break her.
Can we assume we’ll get to see more of Sam now that he’s actually in with the group? Now that Emma has been able to bring him to everyone?
Fazekas: In a way that you maybe won’t expect, but yes.
Are we going to see Luke again — either in more flashbacks, or some other form — before the end of the season?
Kripke: Maybe!
Fazekas: Tune in.
Kripke: Tune in. And I think it will be in a way that’s satisfying to the viewer.
Any more “Boys” cameos that we can expect in the final two episodes?
Kripke: Maybe! I mean, for sure Victoria Newman, and there might be a surprise or two. We’ll see.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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