Showrunner Eric Kripke, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins delve into “One-Shots,” their big “Supernatural” get-together.

Inside the Supernatural reunion on The Boys season 5 and its ‘cameo-palooza’

Showrunner Eric Kripke, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins delve into "One-Shots," their big "Supernatural" get-together.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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April 29, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

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Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padalecki in 'The Boys' season 5 promo. Credit:

- *The Boys* showrunner Eric Kripke and stars Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins go inside the big *Supernatural* reunion episode.

- The goal, Kripke says, was getting "as many of our celebrity friends in a room as possible and then kill them all in the most violent way."

- Ackles recalls the take they did where they played the *Boys* scene as their *Supernatural* characters.

**Warning: This article contains spoilers from *The Boys* season 5, episode 5, "One-Shots."**

Evan Goldberg, an executive producer on *The Boys* and a longtime collaborator with fellow EP Seth Rogen, has always wanted to pull off a certain stunt on the R-rated superhero drama: "Get Seth and as many of our celebrity friends in a room as possible and then kill them all in the most violent way possible," showrunner Eric Kripke tells **.

Rogen appeared on *The Boys* back in season 1 as a fictionalized version of himself for a brief junket-style press interview with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), and he was due for a comeback. "We've had cameos before," Kripke continues, alluding to the likes of Charlize Theron, Tilda Swinton (in voice only), and Will Ferrell. But this, he notes, would be a "cameo-palooza of as many as we can get."

Kripke adds, "When we walked into this story [for the final season], we said, 'We're gonna kill a bunch of celebrities. How are we gonna do it?'"

The answer revealed itself when the writers convened to break season 5: Bring in the *Supernatural* gents and have them do it!

Jared Padalecki as Mister Marathon on 'The Boys' season 5.

*The Boys*' current storyline sees Homelander (Antony Starr) in pursuit of V1, the original and way more potent serum that predates Compound V, in the hopes of turning himself into an immortal god. He and his father, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), coerce information out of Stan Edgar (Carlo Esposito) that leads them to the Los Angeles home of Mister Marathon (Jared Padalecki), the original speedster of the Seven who has a lot of paraphernalia from the old days of Vought.

Kripke, the creator of *Supernatural*, has been wanting to get his former star on *The Boys* for years with Ackles, but Padalecki's schedule on *Walker* kept getting in the way. With the cancelation of that show finally came the opportunity. Misha Collins, known to their fandom as Castiel, became a later addition.

"I sent Eric an email at some point, maybe it was before they started filming season 4 or while they were filming season 4, that said, 'Hey, Eric, Just so you know, I think my son will disown me if you don't at least give me a cameo in *The Boys*. So if you care at all about my family unity, you'll cast me,'" Collins recalls. The actor has been watching from the beginning, given how many *Supernatural* folks are involved in front of and behind the scenes. "So, in a sense," he continues, "I just guilt-tripped and strong-armed him into including me in the fold here."

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The season 5 writers' room came to the conclusion that they needed another supe to work with Mister Marathon. That character became Malchemical, who, in the *Boys* comic books from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, was a supe who could turn into anyone and any element. He was also a predator who got fired from his super-group, Team Titanic, for sexual misconduct. Kripke immediately thought of Collins for the job.

The celebs Rogen and Goldberg separately assembled for the bloodbath include Kumail Nanjiani, who filmed a brief cameo for *The Boys* season 2's parody of the "Imagine" viral video. He was joined by Will Forte, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Craig Robinson.

Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy, Antony Starr as Homelander on 'The Boys' season 5.

Jasper Savage/Prime Video

Their means of execution is a callback to the beginnings of the entire series. Just as drug-addled speedster A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) ran straight through Hughie's girlfriend at top speed, kicking off the events of *The Boys*, a coked-out Mister Marathon barrels into each of his guests while chasing Soldier Boy through his mansion.

Knowing how the satirical drama allows Kripke to let "the twisted machinations of his mind unfold," Collins jokes, "Of course I was stricken with a bit of dread when I got the news that I was gonna be on *The Boys*." He points to another *Supernatural* alum, Rob Benedict, who previously played multiplying supe Splinter on season 4. A notable scene involves Benedict's character using his powers to create a sexual human centipede — an analingus gravy train, if you will.

"It's the most graphic, horrific, mortifying possible situation to put an actor in," Collins exclaims. "I was like, 'Please, please don't let me go the way that Rob went.'" When he finally got the script, however, the sequence was "joyfully chaotic," Collins describes.

Ackles remembers "the hilarity of it," noting, "There were so many takes ruined because of people breaking and not being able to keep their s--- together. So, yes, it was difficult to film, but not for the reasons that most people think."

Malchemical (Misha Collins) and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) on 'The Boys' season 5.

The episode becomes a real treat for *Supernatural* fans. Mister Marathon's mansion is filled with movie posters for the D-list VCU movies he made over the years, including one referring to him as the "Supernatural Speedster."

"I actually did not order up that poster," Kripke clarifies. "When I saw it, I laughed. There must be some *Supernatural* fans in the art department."

Collins points to another Easter egg that references "The French Mistake," a meta episode of *Supernatural* involving a parallel universe where Sam and Dean are actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles on a TV show. "The script is taking the piss out of each one of us, and the Jared character is super vain. He has this giant portrait of himself in his giant mansion of a house," Collins says. "They reprised that in this episode [of *The Boys*] with Jared having a giant portrait of himself in the entryway of the house."

Behind the scenes, Phil Sgriccia, who worked on their previous CW series, returned to direct the "One-Shots" episode of *The Boys*. Kripke likens it to "meeting up with your best friends from high school."

After a few takes, Sgriccia even suggested "something a little out of the box," Ackles recalls: playing the scene as their *Supernatural* characters. So Soldier Boy by way of Dean Winchester, Mister Marathon by way of Sam Winchester, and Malchemical by way of Castiel.

Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Jared Padalecki on 'Supernatural'. Colin Bentley/The CW

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"At first it threw me big time," Ackles says. "'Cause we're also saying the lines of our other characters. I think we got about halfway through it and we were like, 'This isn't working. This isn't even funny. This isn't even a joke. This is just sad.'"

The real challenge of the episode was the logistical puzzle. Ackles refers to it as "a nightmare." It involved coordinating a lot of schedules with every actor.

"You're not just asking a star to roll into the valley for the afternoon," Kripke points out. "You're asking them to go to the airport, get on a plane, fly to Toronto, be there for three days in the cold. It took a minute to gather that group."

Robinson was particularly jet-lagged. He came directly from Las Vegas, where he pulled an all-nighter working, to shoot the briefest of cameos: Walking out of the bathroom only to get accidentally exploded by Mister Marathon. "I've never seen anyone more tired in my life up until Phil yells action, and then he's amazing and he's spot on and he's brilliant," Kripke laughs. "Then they yell cut and he just slumped over again. That was not an easy thing that guy did to give us a favor, so I really owe him one."

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