The Boys Season 3 Character Clearly Inspired By A Notorious Hollywood Legend

When viewers tuned into "The Boys" this week on Prime Video, they were treated to an appearance by none other than Paul Reiser, the comedian and actor known for his film roles in "Aliens" and "Beverly Hills Cop" and his TV roles on "Stranger Things" and "Mad About You." In "The Boys" season 3, episode 5, "The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies," Reiser plays The Legend, the cigar-chomping, one-legged former Vice President of Hero Management at Vought International.

The Legend and Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) go way back, but when Reiser's character answers the door in tinted glasses, Hughie (Jack Quaid) has no idea who he is. Fans of old-school '70s cinema, however, may have noticed that The Legend was modeled on a Hollywood legend: Robert Evans, the onetime head of Paramount Pictures.

This is something that "The Boys" showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed in an interview with Nerdist, where he referenced "The Boys" comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, saying:

"In the comics Garth very definitively based The Legend on Stan Lee, and that was because Garth was living in a comic book world. The comic books were the huge media in that universe, so it makes sense that Stan Lee was the head of that. But in our world, movies and television are the primary source of superhero media. When you think of a producer from the '70s and '80s you land on Robert Evans pretty quickly. Paul and I spoke about it and it was a very conscious tribute to Robert Evans."

In his apartment, The Legend has photos on the wall of him with '70s stars like Burt Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, Steve McQueen, Dennis Hopper, and Roy Scheider. He also drops plenty of other names and just generally looks for any opportunity to steer the conversation away from the Winter Soldier analog Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and into stories of his Hollywood sexcapades, such as when he was "at the Chateau [Mormont] after the 'Marathon Man' premiere." Aside from the character's physical appearance, which resembles that of Evans, linking The Legend to "Marathon Man" is one overt indication that he is based on the film's producer.

Evans, who died in 2019 at the age of 89, had a life and career that was by turns storied and infamous. As a studio executive at Paramount, he was behind classic films like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Godfather," and he produced such films as "Chinatown" and its sequel "The Two Jakes." However, he ran into trouble with the law and was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1980. He later insisted that he was only a user, not a distributor of cocaine, which partially explains why we see The Legend freely snorting coke (and offering some to Hughie, who declines) on "The Boys."

"The Boys" isn't the only show this year to depict a dramatized version of Evans or a character based on him. Matthew Goode also recently played Evans in the Miles Teller-led Paramount+ limited series, "The Offer." Episode 5 isn't the last we've seen of The Legend on "The Boys," either. Kripke has said that the character is a "blast to write" and that we will definitely "see more of him this season."