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The Boys' Simon Pegg Recasting Is Finally Fixing An Original Hughie Issue

Casting Simon Pegg as Hughie in The Boys: Diabolical finally does what Amazon's live-action adaptation never could. An 8-part anthology, The Boys: Diabolical brings Compound-V insanity into animation. Most episodes exist within Amazon's continuity, but to the delight of long-time fans, The Boys: Diabolical also includes a story in the style of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's original comics, set inside the source material's canon.

This nostalgic effort features a cameo from Hughie Campbell, but rather than Jack Quaid playing the character - as he does in The Boys - the voice belongs to Simon Pegg. The Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Star Trek actor is no stranger to The Boys, having portrayed Hughie's dad in season 1, and it's amusing/touching that The Boys: Diabolical casts Hughie's live-action father as the voice of cartoon Hughie himself - a neat thread of familial continuity. However, the true meaning behind Pegg's The Boys: Diabolical casting calls back to Ennis and Robertson's comics, and delivers on a promise Amazon's live-action series sadly couldn't.

Related: The Boys: Herogasm - All You Need To Know About Season 3's Superhero Party

Drawing up initial designs for Billy Butcher's crew in the mid-2000s, Darick Robertson based Hughie's comic appearance on Simon Pegg, who had recently found worldwide fame for throwing vinyl at zombies and badly jumping over fences. The resemblance isn't exactly subtle, and others might've been tempted to release the lawyers, but Pegg got a kick out of having a comic book-a-like, and even wrote a foreword for The Boys' first trade paperback release. Had a TV series happened in 2006, Pegg likely would've been cast as live-action Hughie. By the time someone finally got around to making Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's long-gestating adaptation, however, nearly 15 years had passed, and Pegg playing Hughie would've been somewhat of a stretch. Casting the actor as Jack Quaid's dad (not that one) in The Boys was a neat way of paying homage to Wee Hughie's Pegg-ish roots.

The Boys: Diabolical goes one step further. Thanks to the spinoff's animated format, cast member ages become irrelevant, and Simon Pegg can finally play "Wee" Hughie Campbell... 16 years after the character made his auspicious comic debut. Pegg's cameo in The Boys: Diabolical is tastes even sweeter thanks to the comic book authenticity of his episode, in which the art style and character designs closely mimic Darick Robertson's. Unsurprisingly, the episode in question was penned by a certain Garth Ennis. A brilliantly meta scenario arises whereby Simon Pegg is voicing a comic book character drawn in his own image over a decade prior.

Pegg playing Hughie also lends credibility to The Boys: Diabolical's recasting. Though some live-action actors reprise their roles for the spinoff, others are voiced by totally different names, and after 2 seasons spent growing attached to Amazon's cast, those changes take some getting used to. Uniquely, Simon Pegg's Hughie simultaneously feels totally different, and totally authentic. Jack Quaid does a stellar job panicking and getting covered in blood, but his Hughie is a far cry from the original. In The Boys: Diabolical, Simon Pegg can channel Ennis and Robertson's Wee Hughie - Scottish accent and all - and finally breathe life into the character readers envisioned when first flicking through the pages of Dynamite's comic series.

More: Why The Boys’ New Soldier Boy Backstory Fixes A Comic Problem



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