HBO’s Barry Surprises With Two Unexpected Cameos

Spoilers for Barry follow! HBO’s Barry isn’t’ really the kind of series that is built on surprise appearances. The Emmy-winning show has previously had some cameos, mostly actors playing themselves like Jon Hamm, Allison Jones, and Joe Mantegna, but this week’s two cameos are a new level. For context, with Barry in prison, word has gotten back to NoHo Hank that Barry is talking to the FBI and is willing to hand over details of the Chechen mafia in exchange for a reduced sentence and perhaps even witness protection relocation. Last week’s episode ended with Hank lamenting that they have to kill Barry, leading to them hiring some professionals.

Before we meet the men that will carry out the hit on Barry we met their manager, teased in the previous episode in a mysterious text to Hank. Now that they’re prepared to take on the hit, the mysterious “Toro” is revealed to be….none other than Hellboy and The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro! He shares a hilarious scene with Hank and Cristobal, detailing the capabilities of his hitman team (who actually, apparently, host a podcast reviewing new tech). 

Hader revealed to Deadline about the Academy Award-winning director appearing on the show, saying: “How it came about, actually, was he said, “I’d love to be in your show,” and I went, “Oh, yeah.” Then, I wrote a part for him and said, “Hey, man. I wrote a part for you. The character’s named Toro.” And I think he was a bit surprised. He went, “Really?” And I go, “Yeah!” And he texted me back, “Are you serious?” [Laughs] And I was like, “Yes, you asked me to. I did it.” And he said, “Oh, well when do you shoot? When is it?” He got really kind of excited, and then next thing I know, Tiffany [Hasbourne], who’s our costume designer, came up and went, “Uh, so Guillermo has his own cane.” And she showed me pictures. “Here’s the costume he prefers,” and that’s the one we went with. And I was like, “Oh my god, there he is.” He went to a fitting, and he did it. He was great.”  

As you can guess, the next cameo comes from the contract killers hired to eliminate Barry, with one of them revealed to be none other than former Saturday Night Live star Fred Armisen. Naturally the attempt on Barry’s life does not go as planned, with the weapon that Armisen’s character chose to kill Barry backfiring and blowing up several fingers on his head. His partner also gets tangled up in cords in the ceiling, failing to shoot Barry and instead taking out everyone from the FBI that is present in the room. 

Naturally, Barry uses this as a means to escape from prison. So just in case you were distracted by the cameo and the aftermath of Fred Armisen’s appearance, it was a big night for Bill Hader’s Barry.