When people think of Dame Helen Mirren, they don’t usually picture her as an action film heroine. More likely than not, prestigious art films comes to mind, or perhaps an Oscar nominated historical drama. But while that sort of project may be Helen Mirren’s calling card, she’s far from a one-trick pony. Her appearances in the high-octane The Fast and the Furious franchise confirmed that, but The Boys star Chase Crawford has revealed that Amazon Prime Video's twisted superhero series had plans for the decorated actress to take on a truly outside-the-box role.
In an appearance at New York Comic Con (via CBR), Chase Crawford discussed the delightfully bonkers scene in Season 2 of The Boys where his character, The Deep, has a drug-induced chat with his own chest-gills - and the aquatic appendages talked back. And sang back, as it were. His fellow panelist and co-star Jack Quaid, who plays Hughie Campbell, asked whether or not Chase Crawford knew who would provide the voice of the aforementioned gills. While the former Gossip Girl star admitted he wasn’t privy to that information, he did reveal that The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke had initially vied for none other than Dame Helen Mirren to voice The Deep’s gills.
That choice may sound insane, or perfectly natural, but it definitely fits with the darkly comic tone The Boys has made its trademark. And Helen Mirren has proven she’s not afraid to take comedic roles or poke fun at her refined demeanor. She deftly hosted the satirical IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now! with Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen, and Bill Hader - not to mention her snappy one-liners in her various appearances as Magdalene Shaw in the Fast and Furious saga. It’s not too far of a stretch to imagine she would lend her pipes to a pair of gills on The Boys.
While Eric Kripke did not end up with his first choice for The Deep’s gills, he did find an equally hilarious replacement in comedian and actor Patton Oswalt. The voice-acting veteran has quite a few non-human credits on his resume, including Remy in Ratatouille, Max in The Secret Life of Pets 2, and the adorable delusion in Happy! A set of sentient prosthetic gills attached to Chase Crawford sounds like another day at the office.
The upcoming third season of The Boys will see the return of all main cast members including Chase Crawford, Jack Quaid, Karl Urban, Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, and Giancarlo Esposito. Cast newbies will count Jensen Ackles of Supernatural and Katia Winter of Dexter among their numbers. Maybe Helen Mirren can join in the fun as Billy Butcher's earlobes or as a sentient version of Love Sausage's central appendage.
Production on Season 3 of The Boys wrapped in September of 2021. The season premiere does not have a scheduled release date yet, so keep checking back here on CinemaBlend for future updates. In the meantime, you can sneak a peek at our 2021 Fall television premiere schedule here.
