The Boys Season 4 promises to be the show’s best yet. The Prime Video hit satires modern-day superhero franchises through a darker and more adult lens. This is surprising given the creator’s first hit show, Supernatural, premiered in a more PG and family-friendly network on broadcast television.
In the most recent episode of The Boys, there’s a detail that offers a fun reference to Supernatural.
Just Why is Supernatural Such a Big Deal?
Eric Kripke, creator-writer-producer of The Boys, first shot to fame as the man behind one of the longest-running genre shows of all time, Supernatural. Kripke’s Supernatural ran for 15 seasons, and despite Kripke only being showrunner for the first five, that’s a huge achievement for any writer and creator.
Supernatural centers on two estranged brothers (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki) reuniting to find their monster-hunter father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and how they end up being the only people who can save the world.
Supernatural initially premiered on The WB, which was known for its more family-friendly content. When the network transitioned into The CW, it took on a more young adult approach to its line-up, in which Supernatural fit perfectly.
Throughout its run, the show really blurred the line with the kind of things you can get away with on network TV. So when The Boys premiered on Prime Video, its over-the-top violent, vulgar, creatively hyper-sexual, and gory content was a little surprising coming from the same creator as Supernatural.
Supernatural Actors Who Appear in The Boys
Kripke obviously remembers the show that brought him such success and the relationships he made during his time there. So it’s only natural to see many actors he previously worked with in Supernatural also show up throughout The Boys.
Actors like Adrian Holmes, Jim Beaver, and Rob Benedict, who had prominent roles in Supernatural, also crossover into The Boys. The most significant of those is Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy, the show’s major antagonist in Season 3.
And in The Boys Season 4, Jeffrey Dean Morgan appears as Joe Kessler. During a scene on The Boys Season 4 Episode 3, Butcher drops an excellent Supernatural easter egg.
The Boys’ Supernatural Easter Egg is Perfect
Butcher (Karl Urban) enlists the help of his old CIA buddy, Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), to retrieve Homelander’s (Antony Starr) son Ryan.
Ryan has the same powers as Homelander, and Butcher is worried that his influence will turn Ryan into a killer. But at the same time, he doesn’t trust Kessler either and is worried that the government may train Ryan to use his power against Homelander.
So Butcher asks Kessler if he would ever train his son to become a killer. This is a clear reference to the fact that Morgan’s character in Supernatural, John Winchester, did train his boys to become killers and monster hunters.
The fact that the character is a somewhat problematic father figure was actually one of the Supernatural’s long-running plot points.
This is further expanded later in the episode as Kessler responds to Butcher’s previous question. He basically says he would absolutely train his son to be a killer, and if he died, then he would be proud of his son for saving the world.
The fact that both of John Winchester’s sons, Dean and Sam, have died saving the world multiple times in Supernatural, is another way that this easter egg was so satisfying for fans of both shows.
And the fact that Kripke co-wrote this episode of The Boys Season 4, means that this is definitely intentional and not just a coincidence.
What did you think of The Boys’ Supernatural easter egg? Let us know in the comments below or follow me on X (formerly Twitter) for more The Boys talk throughout Season 4.
The Boys is available for streaming on Prime Video.
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Shah Shahid
Entertainment Journalist. Movie & TV Critic. Bollywood Blogger. Proud Geek Girl Dad. Lover of all the Stars(Trek/Wars/Gate) and everything in between.
