The upcoming second season of Prime Video's Gen V has added its first new cast member, with Legion and Midnight Mass alum Hamish Linklater set to join the ensemble as the new dean of Godolkin University, Cipher.
It sounds like this character was created for the show (though he could end up having a comic book counterpart), and is described as “the charismatic and charming newly-appointed Dean of Godolkin University. Trained as a scientist, he’s politically brilliant, and has the trust and admiration of officials at the highest level.”
The previous dean, Shelley Conn's Indira Shetty, came to a messy end in season 1 when Cate Dunlap's Maddie Phillips used her mind control powers to force the duplicitous villain to slit her own throat.
Showrunner Eric Kripke has previously confirmed that the Gen V finale will directly tie-in to the events of The Boys season 4.
"In our minds, it’s only a couple of days after whatever the events are of Gen V," he said in a recent interview with Variety. "We try to keep the timeline super simple because all that folding-in-on-itself timeline stuff that I think other comic book universes find themselves having to do is just bewildering for me as a viewer. So it’s all very modular.
Gen V is partially based on the "We Gotta Go Now" story arc from The Boys comic series, written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson. The show takes place between the events of The Boys season 3 and 4, with Jessie T. Usher and Chase Crawford reprising their respective roles as A-Train and The Deep, along with cast mates Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, and PJ Byrne.
In Gen V, the students at Godolkin will be "put their physical and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the school’s highly coveted top ranking. They quickly come to learn that ambition comes with sacrifice, and the difference between right and wrong is not as clear as they once believed. When the university’s dark secrets come to light, the students must come to grips with what type of heroes they are going to become.”
Gen V also stars Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas and Marco Pigossi. Chance Perdomo played a lead role in season 1, but the actor was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident earlier this year, and his character will not be recast.