Hamish Linklater's Terrifying Gen V Villain Drew From An Unlikely Source [Exclusive]

The main antagonist on "The Boys," Homelander (Antony Starr), is so sadistically vicious that it's hard to imagine a villain ever coming close to matching his freak, but the new dean of Godolkin University in "Gen V" season 2 is refusing to let Soldier Boy's Boy suck up all the evil glory for himself. Cipher is a mysterious new figure who operates in complete opposition to his predecessor, Dean Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn), a human behavioral scientist who wanted to enact a genocide against all supes after her husband and daughter were killed in the plane Homelander failed to save in "The Boys" season 1. Cipher, on the other hand, is a supe himself with — as of the season's debut — unknown powers. He sees the dangers that humans pose to supes and wants the students of God U to be prepared for the worst, starting a seminar to figure out which students will make the most powerful soldiers and using extreme violence in the process.

What makes Cipher so unsettling isn't just that there's so much about him that the audience and students don't know, but that, despite being a walking red flag with an absolutely rancid aura surrounding him at all times, his aloofness only makes him more intriguing. Granted, a lot of that can be attributed to Cipher being played by Hamish Linklater, an actor just about everyone on the planet loves (due in large part to his phenomenal turn on Mike Flanagan's "Midnight Mass"), but it's also a testament to his acute understanding of why people like Cipher continue to thrive in our world. When he tells the students returning to a campus covered in "Make America Super Again" banners during his welcome speech, "Because it is high time that humans and race traitors like Starlight learn what runs through our veins is true Vought blue," he might as well be repeating any of the white supremacist dogwhistles peddled by alt-right propagandist podcasters in the real world.

I recently interviewed Linklater ahead of season 2, and he told me that while real-life figures we see on the news were clear inspirations for his performance, he was also trying to emulate members of the Rat Pack.

Cipher feels incredibly lived in as a villain, so I asked Hamish Linklater outright who he was channeling, complimenting how evil he is. "Because that's what they paid me to do! [laughs]," he told me. "In terms of channeling, I don't know. I was thinking about the Rat Pack a little bit and Dean Martin, but then I'd just be like ... turn on the news. Try to act like those guys." 

The world of "The Boys" has never been subtle about its critique of the alt-right movement (despite the fact that conservatives needed four seasons of being hit over the head with a "HOMELANDER IS NOT THE HERO"-shaped cast-iron skillet to realize they were being dunked on), so it's not surprising to know that real-life political pundits were woven into Linklater's portrayal of Cipher. It is, however, fascinating to learn that Dean Martin and the other members of the Rat Pack were inspirations.

The main members of the Rat Pack are commonly accepted as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, who were as well known for their music and movies as they were for their heavy drinking and womanizing. On the surface, it seems strange that Linklater would want to evoke the spirit of the guys who gave us the original "Ocean's 11," but that's exactly why it's such a perfect callback. The Rat Pack were well-dressed, talented, charismatic, and universally adored, but were mired in controversy at multiple points in their lives. They're an old-school kind of "cool" with a legacy style that has overshadowed their shortcomings. For a villain like Cipher, the casual confidence of the Rat Pack and the vile contempt of a conservative extremist on the 2025 news make for a perfect combination and the key to why season 2 of "Gen V" works so well.

"Gen V" season 2 is available on Prime Video.