The Boys: Seth Rogen's 2 Cameos Explained

The Boys has two Seth Rogen cameos — here’s why they’re perfect. The comedic actor is one of the producers on the Amazon series, but he has also dropped in on the show a couple of times. His appearances encom a couple of scenes as a part of the Vought Cinematic Universe, which includes a plethora of films starring The Seven, an elite team of superheroes who are actually antagonists and who are controlled by the pharmaceutical corporation Vought.

The VCU is essentially like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, made up of movies that are all a part of a shared canon. Rogen is a part of the VCU, a universe within a universe in The Boys. Films in the VCU include Translucent: Invisible Force, The Deep: Rising Tide, and Dawn of the Seven, a superhero team movie inspired by Justice League. Rogen essentially appears as himself in The Boys, once during a season 1 episode, called “The Innocents,” where he’s seen alongside Black Noir to promote the latter’s film, Black Noir: Insurrection, during a TV junket interview. In the The Boys season 2 premiere, called “The Big Ride,” Rogen is shown discussing Translucent, who died at the hands of Billy Butcher and the other Boys near the end of season 1. The scene plays alongside the supe’s funeral as a kind of tribute, though it wasn’t filmed specifically for the moment.

According to The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke, Rogen is akin to the The Boys and its in-universe superhero movies.

Rogen’s cameos are all the more fun because The Boys parodies superheroes; the world of the VCU films takes it a step further. If the shared universe has Avengers-like heroes working to save the day, it makes all the more sense there would be a Coulson or Nick Fury-like character to help them. All told, Rogen’s character is like the glue that holds everyone together throughout the VCU. The actor filmed a good amount of material for the show and his appearances have been peppered throughout The Boys season 1 and season 2. As a producer on the Amazon series, Rogen’s appearances work because they’re minor, are usually played for laughs, and work to flesh out the world of the VCU.

Kripke confirms there is a lot more footage that was filmed of Rogen as his VCU character that has yet to be used in The Boys. Considering there’s so much left to see of his character, it’s always possible he could appear in a cameo or two during The Boys season 3. Perhaps season 3 will finally see Rogen’s character in a VCU film rather than during an interview, but time will tell.