It has been announced that actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be joining the cast of Prime Video’s hit satirical superhero series The Boys. The news comes after the release of the third season of The Boys to great critical acclaim. The series takes a darkly comedic look at a reality where superheroes are common, but far from noble or heroic.
Morgan is no stranger to prestige television. His memorable turn as Negan in The Walking Dead, the AMC horror-drama series, is considered a highlight of the show. But more than his TV work, it is a particular role that Morgan played in a movie that makes his entry into the world of The Boys feel like a self-aware homecoming occasion of sorts. Let’s see why the actor is the perfect new addition to The Boys.
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Before The Boys
DC Comics
Right from its first season, The Boys live-action series was praised for challenging the public’s idea of what superhero stories should be about. The series depicted its super-powered characters as depraved degenerates who have no regard for humanity, and are too busy fighting each other or dealing with personal issues to be shining beacons of hope for the world.
But before The Boys brought some much-needed realism and humor to the land of live-action superhero movies, a similar movement had already started decades earlier in the comics medium. The most famous example of a comic series that questioned the power of superheroes instead of blindly celebrating it was Alan Moore’s iconic 1986 graphic novel series Watchmen.
Who Watches Out for Superheroes?
Warner Bros.
Much like The Boys, Watchmen explored a world of many superheroes, but finding one with actual integrity and innate heroism is next to impossible. While the superheroes of Watchmen have varying levels of power, they are much more interested in using those powers for personal matters rather than to save the world from enemies or set an example for humanity to follow.
And so the series poses the question, what can a normal person do in a world where superheroes exist, but they are not interested in being heroes? What can you do when the people pretending to be the saviors of mankind have ulterior motives, and wouldn’t think twice about taking human lives if it suits their purpose? Who watches the watchers? These are the very same questions that The Boys has asked across its three seasons.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan Portrayed the Worst of the Watchmen
A big difference between The Boys and Watchmen is that the former features superheroes who are actively evil, while the latter shows most superheroes as self-absorbed and tortured individuals, or indifferent gods. All except one. There is one character in Watchmen who feels like he walked straight off the sets of The Boys and doesn’t need to change a thing to fit right into either of the series.
That character is Eddie Blake, aka the Comedian, a hard-drinking, cigar-chomping degenerate who feels like a cross between the Punisher and Deadpool, but way worse. As his superhero name suggests, the Comedian sees the world through a cynically humorous lens and has no illusions about being a noble-hearted superhero. He uses his abilities to kill people on the orders of the government and gets to run around in various superhero teams like the Minutemen and the Watchmen.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Comedian
The Watchmen comic series was considered unfilmable for the longest time due to its dense subject matter. But in 2009 filmmaker Zack Snyder made the attempt with an almost three-hour feature that sought to condense Moore’s work into a traditional film. The movie received mixed reviews from critics, but the cast of the film came in for strong praise.
A standout performance was delivered by Morgan as the Comedian. Despite only being in the movie for a short duration, Morgan dominates the screen in every scene, revealing layers of the character in unexpected ways. We see Eddie Blake physically assault a female superhero, shoot down the mother of his unborn child in cold blood, and assassinate John F. Kennedy.
Despite his selfish and violent ways, the Comedian is also shown to be quite perceptive but hopelessly cynical. He sees himself and other heroes as nothing more than cogs in a giant government machinery that is more about controlling the masses than making the world a better place. Through the character of Morgan’s Eddie Blake, Watchmen violently makes fun of the type of stories about one-dimensionally heroic superheroes that mainstream movies mostly feature.
The Comedian Is the Father of The Boys
The narrative purpose the Comedian fulfills in Watchmen is very similar to how the relationship between the main characters plays out in The Boys. Much like the Comedian, Bill Butcher in The Boys is an eternal cynic who believes superheroes are a scam run by the government, and the actions of Homelander and his ilk prove Butcher right at every turn.
Through his role as the Comedian, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has proven that he has already mastered the art of cynicism and humor that fits right into the world of The Boys. It would be interesting to see the actor play an older statesman version of Eddie Blake, who now exists in a world where superheroes are even more morally bankrupt than they were in Watchmen.
