Paul Reiser Said He Had No Idea His Character In The Boys Was A Parody Of Stan Lee
Topics: Film and TV, The Boys, Amazon Prime
Lisa McLoughlin
Featured Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video/Disney
Topics: Film and TV, The Boys, Amazon Prime
Actor Paul Reiser has revealed that he had no idea his character in The Boys was a parody of Stan Lee.
The 66-year-old star was introduced as The Legend on last week’s episode of the Amazon Prime series, to many viewers' delight.
The Legend is a fan-favourite from the original comic books and is a crude parody of Marvel comic book author Stan Lee.
However, the character was tweaked to be more like Hollywood power players of yesteryear, like studio executive Robert Evans, who is best known for his work on Rosemary's Baby, Love Story and The Godfather.
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In a new interview with Variety, Reiser admitted he had no idea about the Lee connection until the publication told him.
He said: "No, I don’t even think I knew that till today, till you said it.
"I did not know the comic at all, I did not know the character at all. And I never even heard from the guys when we were talking about it that it was a Stan Lee [parody]. Now it makes sense!
"Someone tweeted, 'Oh, you were clearly going for Stan Lee, but there was a little Robert Evans.' I went, never thought of Stan Lee, totally thought of Robert Evans."
Meanwhile, some right-wing supporters have recently realised that The Boys have been mocking their political views.
The incredible series focuses on a bunch of flawed superheroes, however the subtext underneath their characters is fairly political and very topical.
Showrunner Eric Kripke admitted in a recent interview with that Homelander – the diabolical, psychopathic Supe with the chilling smile – is based on Donald Trump.
Kripke told Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt that Homelander's 'combustible mix of complete weakness and insecurity' and his 'horrible power and ambition' make a deadly combo.
"All he ever wants is to be the most powerful person he can be, even though he’s completely inadequate in his abilities to handle it. So it’s white-male victimisation and unchecked ambition.
"And those issues just happened to reflect the guy who, it’s just still surreal to say it, was f***ing president of the United States."
Kripke added: "[Homelander] has always been a Trump analogue for me."
The revelation that the psychotic Homelander is based on the 45th President of the United States may come as a shock to a few people out there.
The latest season of The Boys is striking a bit of a different tune compared to the other two installations, with some far-right supporters now realising that they may be the butt of the joke.
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