With footage from Prime Video‘s The Boys Season 4 finally here thanks to the teaser trailer, we’ve also got one of our biggest mysteries (sort of solved). Yep, that’s Negan himself, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, in the teaser footage, paling around with Billy Butcher (Karl Urban). But who is Jeffrey Dean Morgan playing in The Boys?
The answer, it seems, is Joe Kessler, also known as Monkey in the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. More on that in a second, but the important thing to understand here is that the Amazon series and the comic books are two very different things. Just because a character is one way in the comics doesn’t mean he or she is that way on screen. And in fact, based on the quick footage we see of Morgan absolutely ripping Butcher for calling his team “The Boys,” it seems like this will be a whole new character.
Also in terms of the ongoing plot of The Boys, while we don’t know exactly how many episodes Morgan will be in, we do know that showrunner Eric Kripke originally wanted him in Season 3… However, his shooting schedule with The Walking Dead: Dead City, where he reprised his role as Negan, prevented that. Meaning Morgan’s function might be essentially to pop in and pop out, versus appearing in all eight Season 4 episodes.
…Or maybe not! Rumor sites have teased that Morgan will appear in every episode of the next season except for Episode 2, and Episode 4. We’ll see. Regardless, it’s pretty clear that with Butcher on the outs with his team thanks to taking things too far in Season 3, he’s turning to old allies. Like Kessler. Again, more below, but Kessler is an informant for Butcher and works for the government. Given Morgan is wearing a suit and working in a corporate office, he may serve the same basic function in Season 4.
Who Is Joe Kessler, AKA Monkey, In The Comics?
The comics, if you weren’t aware, and we hadn’t already said it, are very different from the show. On the page, Kessler is a CIA analyst who works for the government, per above. He appears in the first issue of the series and is Butcher’s hook-up to meeting Wee Hughie — and overall, appeared in 22 issues of the comics. But unlike Morgan, he’s a nervous coward terrified of nearly everything. This stems back to how he got his nickname: he was raped in both ears by AIDS-infected monkeys.
Did I mention the comic is different than the show? It is!
In the books, Monkey also has a fetish for women in wheelchairs, because everyone in the books has a very specific and unique fetish. Whether that will play out in the show at all is unknown.
The Boys Season 4 Synopsis:
In Season Four, the world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.
The Boys Season 4 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The Boys Season 4 will premiere in 2024, but as of now, we don’t have exact dates or times though there’s a good chance episodes will premiere on Thursdays at 8 pm ET /5 pm PT, per Amazon’s regular roll-out schedule.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Boys Season 4:
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 1 – “Department of Dirty Tricks”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 2 – “Life Among the Septics”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 3 – “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 4 – “Wisdom of the Ages”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 5 – “Beware of the Jabberwock, My Son”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 6 – “Dirty Business”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 7 – “The Insider”
- 2024, TBA: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 8 – “Assassination Run” *Season Finale*
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