The Boys Filmed Some X-Rated Material For The Deep's Parody Trailer
Chace Crawford's The Deep has quietly turned into the MVP of "The Boys": a character who you love to hate, who is just the right amount of pitiful that makes you want to watch more of him, but not pitiful enough that you feel bad when things don't go his way. This is mostly due to Crawford's portrayal of the character, who — unlike Homelander or the other villains of the show — is terrifying because of how ordinary he is. The Deep is just some loser with a position of power, and that makes him scary, especially when involved in less fantastical, more relatable storylines.
Still, The Deep has also been involved in some of the funniest storylines in the show, like his accidental killing of every single sea creature he comes across, even ones he is weirdly sexually involved with, and also that time he got involved with a cult. Deep's indoctrination (and subsequent escape) from the Church of the Collective was a rather entertaining respite from the rest of the gnarly, satirical stories in "The Boys," and in season 3 it resulted in one of the show's best cameos.
You see, after leaving the cult, Deep became a huge celebrity, telling his story in a book that eventually got turned into a movie — a Lifetime-like movie titled "Not Without My Dolphin," which stars the Deep and features a cameo by "Titanic" star Billy Zane.
Speaking with Digital Spy, Crawford opened up about filming the footage for the fake film's trailer, and the even more extreme stuff that got cut before the release of the actual episode. "They couldn't put the whole thing into the episode — we shot a ton more stuff," Crawford teased. "There's an extended, X-rated trailer of the full thing."
Not Without My Dolphin (green band trailer)
Turns out, there could have been even more of "Not Without My Dolphin" than what made the final episode cut — not just X-rated footage for the trailer, but a whole movie. As Crawford told Digital Spy, the production team got excited about the fake Deep biopic and considered turning it into an actual feature-length film.
"Phil Sgriccia, who is our resident director/producer, was like, 'I want to shoot the whole movie. Let's try and pitch the whole movie. When are we doing it?'" Crawford recalled. "Because it was so funny and a lot of fun. To do sort of these meta faux-marketing campaigns or faux movies or faux trailers that sort of accentuate the comedic side of the show."
And therein lies the beauty of "The Boys" as an expanded cinematic universe. Unlike something like Marvel, which has become rather formulaic and stale in recent years, any blatantly commercial spin-off of "The Boys," like an in-universe Lifetime-like feature film about The Deep, makes perfect sense for the satirical tone of the show. It makes sense to have feature films as part of the Vought Industries propaganda machine, and it would be hilarious to turn those into actual films.
In the meantime, we'll probably have to wait a while before "The Boys" returns with season 4. But for more of this world's satirical mayhem, at least there's the upcoming college-set spin-off series "Gen V," which is set to offer a standalone story that nevertheless will include some familiar faces.