Gen V Season 2 had to rework the show after actor Chance Perdomo died in an accident before filming began, and actor Maddie Philips has revealed how the cast coped following his death.
Perdomo was a huge part of the first season of The Boys spinoff, as he played Andre Anderson, a young supe with magnetic powers much like his father, Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas). Sadly, Perdomo died in March 2024 following a motorbike accident in New York.
The Gen V writers decided to write the character out of the second season, but gave him a heroic ending as he sacrificed himself off-screen trying to help his friend’s escape Vought’s Elmira prison shortly before the second season starts.
Philips, who plays Cate Dunlap, has now explained how the cast dealt with Perdomo’s death while filming.
Maddie Philips says the Gen V Season 2 cast’s emotions were real
The Gen V cast understandably felt quit emotional about filming without Perdomo, and Philips said that it almost felt wrong turning their costar’s death into a plot point in Season 2.
“I found it really hard to talk about Chance when it came to how we were going to perform. What the producers and writers did was absolutely the right decision,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m so happy we honor him throughout the season. He’s a part of the story, but it did feel wrong doing it as well.”
She added that there’s “an element of it being real from our own experience, but it’s also a lot of imagining,” and noted that she personally found it hard to talk about Perdomo at the time.
It’s not clear what kind of support was given by Amazon, but Philips said the cast allowed each other to feel whatever they needed to feel while still getting the work done.
“We each let the other just be whatever we all needed to be. I think at the end of the day, we all tried to energetically hold each other while also trying to somehow make space – abstract term, but language is limiting – for us to do our jobs because the show must go on, which is just such a weird thing to think and say.”
Perdomo’s death was difficult for the actors and writers to navigate. In May 2024, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke explained that it’s nothing compared to what Perdomo’s loved ones have been through.
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