Here’s how The Boys managed to pull off Samuel L. Jackson’s bizarre cameo as a cussing shark

Yes, the shark in The Boys season five episode seven really was Samuel L. Jackson. The legendary actor voiced a hammerhead shark called Xander, who warned The Deep sea creatures would kill him if he ever went swimming again, as revenge for his part in the oil spillage. Eric Kripke – the showrunner of The Boys – has detailed how he managed to pull off this unbelievable cameo.

Eric Kripke explained to Polygon: “A lot of the cameos we bring into the show are because Seth Rogen or Evan Goldberg have a relationship with them and can make a call. I lean on them a lot for that stuff.”

For context, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been executive producers for all five seasons of The Boys. Seth Rogen cameoed as a fictionalised version of himself in seasons one, two, three and five (when Mister Marathon finally killed him).

However, Samuel L Jackson’s cameo in The Boys was a lot harder to pull off than the other celebrity appearances.

“We wanted a really distinct voice,” Eric Kripke continued, “and who has a more distinct voice in Hollywood than Sam Jackson? So we just went to his agent. He was our first choice, and we were like, ‘Does he want to do this?’ It was really just taking a flyer.

“But then it came back: ‘Oh yeah, he likes the show and totally, he’ll do it.’ Boy, that’s a bucket list moment, man, of Sam Jackson reading your dialogue.”

Xander the shark did actually feature in another episode of The Boys. In the first episode of season five, Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite, The Deep rode on Xander (as one does) while searching for A-Train.

Samuel L. Jackson’s cameo in The Boys is extra funny since in the classic shark movie Deep Blue Sea, his character Russell Franklin was dramatically eaten by a shark.

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Featured images via Prime Video