This Iconic 'The Boys' Scene Was Improv Gone Wrong

The Boys is full of outlandishly hilarious scenes. There’s the time Termite accidentally sneezed and exploded his partner’s penis, Homelander’s Donald Trump-inspired speech, and that wild superhero orgy which, amongst many things, included an octopus. You get the idea. The Boys is a show where quite literally anything goes. What you may not know though is that one of Butcher’s most iconic scenes was actually just improv gone wrong.

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Back in season one, Butcher attempts to convince Hughie into bugging Vought whilst the duo are sat in a car. Butcher compares Hughie’s situation to the The Matrix’s iconic blue and red pill scene but whilst explaining the analogy, Butcher forgets which pill does what and the whole scene is just *chef’s kiss* perfect. Even better is the realisation that Butcher actor Karl Urban improvised the whole thing - and he actually didn’t intend to mess the two pills up.

Speaking to GQ, Urban explained that he pitched his The Matrix idea to The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke. Urban said, “To me it seemed very much like the threshold of the rabbit going down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland and also reminded me a bit of The Matrix. With that in mind, I pitched Kripke an idea that Butcher would reference The Matrix […] and then we shot that and that’s the one that they ended up using.”

He continued, “I stuffed it up. I got the pills confused which was an absolute accident but in the moment it just ended up being comedy genius. It’s very Butcher.” I think on behalf of all fans I can say we’re glad Urban did slip up. It totally makes the scene what it is.