The Boys Almost Cast Fan-Favorite Marvel Star as Major Villain

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke offered a season-long role on The Boys to actor Sterling K. Brown, but Brown was “heartbroken to have to” turn it down. In a new interview with Variety, Brown discussed his rapid rise to A-list status in Hollywood, which comes with freedom to choose his own roles but also obligations that can keep him from accepting them all. That includes an unnamed role on The Boys, which Brown only said a little about. We can only speculate, and even then he didn’t seem to share enough for us to pinpoint a specific character he might have been referring to.

“It think it was a bad guy [role], because it was very tempting,” Brown said. “But a full-season arc, they are in Toronto — it’s tough. Listen, these are Champagne problems I’m talking about here! But because I’m blessed enough to already have certain things in place, I get a chance to be a bit more choosy.”

Across social media, commenters don’t seem to have a consensus on what character Brown might have been talking to, but some suspect he was offered the role that ultimately went to actor Daveed Diggs. Diggs’ casting was announced back in September, but his role has still not been revealed. He will be a series regular, but The Boys is ending after this season, so it won’t last long.

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The Boys is based on a comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, with 72 total issues published between 2006 and 2012. Still, even die-hard fans of the books don’t have any strong theories about who Diggs will be playing — or at least non that they’re sharing on forums and social media. Some seem to think he might be playing a rival to Frenchie, while others theorize he will simply play a normal human on the side of Vought.

Brown and Kripke had a previous relationship from working on The CW drama Supernatural. That’s where the other new cast member comes from as well — Jared Padalecki. His role hasn’t been revealed yet either, and the details of his role have not been revealed either. Fans online joke that he may not have a substantial role at all, but may instead be introduced and quickly killed off for the shock factor.

The Boys Season 5 began filming in November, and is expected to premiere sometime in 2026. The previous four seasons are streaming now on Prime Video, and the comic book series is available now in print and digital formats.