The Famous Actor That Secretly Voices The Deep's Gills On The Boys
Contains spoilers for The Boys
If you've spent your life keeping two feet firmly planted in this plane of reality, then the Deep's journey into his subconscious was probably just plain weird to you. On the second episode of the second season of Amazon Prime Studios' hit series The Boys, the telepathic, aquatic superhero the Deep (Chace Crawford) had an interesting experience with his gills after drinking drug-spiked tea: They started speaking profound truths.
While humans can't relate to the Deep's talking anatomy, which push him further along his emotional journey to redemption and self-actualization, there was still something familiar about the sequence on The Boys season 2. The reason? A well-known actor and comedian secretly provided the voice of the Deep's gills.
Patton Oswalt voices the Deep's gills on The Boys
As it turns out, Patton Oswalt — the actor who famously lent his voice to the culinarily inclined rat Remy in Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille, and the renowned stand-up comedian with a slew of awards for his comedic prowess – is the man behind the Deep's progressive-toned, truth-spewing respiratory organ.
The Boys fans have known that Oswalt would be a part of the second season of the show for quite some time, as showrunner Eric Kripke tweeted in October 2019 a photo of himself alongside Oswalt with the caption, "Thank you @pattonoswalt, that was AMAZING! #TheBoysTV #Season2 #SecretRole." True to the hashtag included in the tweet, Oswalt's secret role was never spoken about ahead of time; The Boys enthusiasts were aware Oswalt would be on the new season, but didn't know until now what role he took on.
Patton Oswalt was a huge fan of The Boys
That said, the actor-comedian's inclusion in The Boys universe wasn't initially planned when the season 2 script was written. The way it all came together was by happenstance, and the Deep's enlightening conversation with his gills originally had different elements at play.
In a September 2020 interview with TVLine, Kripke revealed that the creative team initially wanted the Dave Matthews' tune "Crash Into Me" to be the melody that the Deep and his gills sing and bond over. Also, the team was hoping for Oscar-, Tony-, and Emmy-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren to voice the Deep's gills. Of course, both those hopes never came to fruition. There's been no word on why Mirren didn't work out, but The Boys is quite crass and she's Hollywood royalty with a penchant for British sophistication. As for Dave Matthews, Kripke revealed that the singer-songwriter, "in his wisdom, would not give us the rights to that song." Plus, none of The Boys' characters have rocked his signature board shorts just yet, so it's unlikely the hyper-violent superhero series appeals to his chilled-out fanbase.
Kripke went on in the interview to explain that they had already filmed the scene when Oswalt reached out to him via Twitter, where the actor-comedian had already been praising the show as "brilliant." From there, things just fell into place.
"Patton, who's an amazing guy, reached out to me, like just on Twitter, to say, 'I'm a huge fan of the show,'" Kripke explained of the cameo's creation. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, thank you so much!' and [Oswalt] said, 'If you ever have a role for me, let me know,' and I was like, 'Funny you should ask, because I actually do have something you could do for season 2, if you wanted.'"
Thus was born one of The Boys most memorable moments so far.
Season 2 of The Boys is currently airing on Amazon Prime Video, with new episodes dropping every Friday.