Two very different roles almost lured Jeffrey Dean Morgan onto The Boys

Right, so Jeffrey Dean Morgan is finally on The Boys, but if you feel like that should have happened ages ago, you are absolutely right. Turns out, it very nearly did—multiple times, actually. Morgan himself sat down for a chat on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and spelled out exactly how he kept almost landing a part, but fate (and another rather large TV job) had other ideas for quite a while.

Wrong show, wrong time

Let’s start at the top: not long after The Boys first hit Prime Video, Morgan made a bit of a splash on social media, singing the show’s praises. Naturally, series boss Eric Kripke wasn’t about to miss that opportunity—he basically picked up the phone and tried to bring Morgan onboard for season two. The plan fizzled quickly, though, because of Morgan’s ironclad commitment to The Walking Dead. If you’re counting, that’s a scheduling clash straight out of a TV producer’s nightmare.

On the podcast, Morgan said of those early offers: "This was like for year two. And then happened again in year three. And always my schedule with Walking Dead was in the way."

The effort didn’t stop there. Kripke apparently kept calling, Morgan kept saying yes in theory (and no in practice), and the tango continued into season three. To make it even more painful, Morgan let slip he was up for a couple of different characters during these repeated negotiations—though he’s keeping suspiciously quiet about which ones.

He also told the podcast: "I had an option to do a couple roles that would have been really fun."

So if you ever sensed the show could have used a particular big personality in certain roles, that dreamy alternate timeline was actually on the table. Morgan as, say, *insert your own candidate here*? Not impossible. He admits he still wonders what might have been.

Finally in the club

Fast forward past all the calendar headaches: The Walking Dead wrapped up, stars aligned, and Morgan joined The Boys for season four as Joe Kessler. That move also marks a bit of a reunion—Kripke and Morgan previously worked together on Supernatural, which probably explains how quickly he slotted in with the team. Morgan himself points out how easy it was to bounce off co-star Karl Urban, calling their on-set dynamic practically instant.

There’s a bit of gratitude here, too. Morgan makes it clear he really rates Kripke’s persistence and the chance to finally step onto the set, even if the road was unnecessarily winding. If you want to catch up, every season of The Boys is streaming now on Prime Video.

All those near-misses mean Morgan’s arrival in season four is a result of years of persistence from both sides.