Karl Urban is headed back to TV, with Deadline reporting that the Star Trek and Thor: Ragnarok star—who once graced Fox’s short-lived sci-fi cop show Almost Human with his grumpy visage—has signed on as the lead in Amazon’s The Boys. Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the series is about a group of government hitmen tasked with “cleaning up” after rogue superheroes, with Urban stepping into the blood-soaked footsteps of the group’s leader, Billy Butcher.
Urban will star opposite Jack Quaid, playing Wee Hughie, a newcomer to the squad (one drawn to resemble Simon Pegg in the original comic, from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson). The series has also cast Jesse T. Usher as A-Train, a typically dark take on The Flash, who accidentally—but fatally—collides with Hughie’s girlfriend during a superhero battle. (And never even notices, which is a pretty apt summation of The Boys’ views on “superhero” antics.)
The Boys is being showrun by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, who also wrote the show’s pilot; Goldberg and Rogen, who produce AMC’s Ennis adaptation Preacher, will direct.