Spoilers of course follow for The Boys Season 5, Episode 7.
With Prime Video’s The Boys coming to a close soon — the series finale drops one week from today — many of the characters’ arcs are nearing completion. And in this week’s episode, “The Frenchman, the Female and the Man Called Mother’s Milk,” Chace Crawford’s The Deep reaches a point that could mark the end of his story. And along the way, he encounters a character who happens to be voiced by a luminary from a different superhero universe altogether: Samuel L. Jackson!
Yes, Nick Fury himself is now part of The Boys universe. Only here, Jackson is playing a foul-mouthed shark named Xander. And he’s none too pleased with The Deep.
First Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) caused an environmental disaster at sea, destroying a Vought oil pipeline which killed over a billion fish. Then The Deep killed Black Noir, his alleged friend, in retaliation. And this week, The Deep learned that Homelander (Antony Starr) was disbanding the supe group The Seven and would no longer be needing The Deep’s services. What was left for the Lord of the Seven Seas to do but go sit on a dock and drink a six-pack to wallow in his sorrows? Which is where Jackson’s Xander comes in.
The hammerhead shark swims up to The Deep and tries to convince him to jump in the water. The Deep is too deep into his self-pity at first to realize why his buddy Xander wants him to come in, until the shark yells out in full Sam Jackson mode: “We know you were responsible for the pipeline genocide. Remember March 15th, motherfucker!”
“We wanted a really distinct voice and who has a more distinct voice in Hollywood than Sam Jackson? So we just went to his agent,” showrunner Eric Kripke told Polygon about the voice cameo. “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.”
Will The Deep be back for the finale, or does his story end here, with all of his former friends of the sea wanting him dead while the human world sees him as the coward that he is? Only time will tell.
But perhaps there’s an even bigger question: Is Xander related at all to Sam Jackson’s co-star from Deep Blue Sea!?
Talk to Scott Collura @scottcollura.bsky.social, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do both!
