The Creature

Why the fuck does this matter? Well, last fall (premiering on the night of the Harvest Moon no less), edgy meme fodder superhero show The Boys released a spinoff, Gen V, focusing on superheroes in college. One character, named Sam Riordan (don’t get me started on the Riordan thing. His brother’s name was Luke), suffers from vivid hallucinations, and that’s where things get really strange.

Final tw for live-action depiction of psychosis/hallucinations

So… yeah. Jason Ritter, on The Boys*, playing HIMSELF, playing a deranged puppet show host who appears in a boy’s mind to convince him to go on murder sprees.

*the puppets and larger in-universe puppet tv show associated with Jason Ritter’s character have since appeared in the mainstream The Boys universe, so it can be concluded that Jason Ritter exists there as well.

Oh, and when Sam does give into Jason Ritter’s influence (wtf am I even writing rn) this happens:

Realistic gore warning, especially at the end of the clip. Seriously.

THATS. CONCERNING

Making all this even weirder, this entire show predates the Book Of Bill’s announcement by two whole months, and Jason Ritter’s recent Hot Triangle Summer by almost nine months.

It also predates Matpat’s ICONIC penultimate theory video by seven months. In that video, Matpat (jokingly, mostly) lays out a “final theory” that Bill

1) Survived (confirmed by Book of Bill)

2) is looking for a way into “our” dimension (also confirmed)

3) has found a new human puppet in…. Alex Hirsch. Now, that’s where I don’t agree. Due to the above clips, I always assumed that if Bill was hiding among the GF crew, it was in Jason’s head.

Also in this video, Matpat attempts to explain the Bill Cipher Zodiac thing (??? as I said I don’t actually watch this show)

…this thing. Matpat attempted to explain That Thing by linking each symbol to a project Alex has since worked on, saying that together, these easter eggs would spell out “the way to defeat Bill for good”. However, there is one symbol that Matpat couldn’t figure out.

The “llama”. Except it’s not a llama. It’s an alpaca.

A seemingly (ie, hopefully) sentient alpaca named Sloane, who just happens to be one of the most baffling, non-sequitor gags in Gen V.

So, this is as bizarre as it gets, right? All this goes down, Book of Bill comes out, Jason has his Bill roleplay month and we’re all done, can shut the proverbial and literal book on this specific vein of Cipher shenanigans. …Right?

fUCK NO ITS NOT OVER.

On June 4th, 2024, Gen V’s official twt and insta pages announced their newest character, Cipher, with the show’s second season being confirmed for 2025 in a post dated July 26th.

That’s all the updates on this situation for now. A quick reality check to finish up: Obviously Bill Cipher isn’t real and these writers, actors etc aren’t actually possessed. However, I would take Matpat’s own thoughts one: Alex Hirsch absolutely being the type of person to build this bonkers metanarrative, and add that this is far from the only absolute gut punch of a late-2000s-fandom-specific easter egg to be found in Gen V. Other examples include the characters of Luke Riordan, Annabeth (yes seriously), and ofc the tragic/antihero psychic girl with mind control abilities whose eyes turn red with blood when she overuses her powers, and who loses her hand in a climactic season-ending battle…. If You Know, You Know. TLDR someone in Gen V’s writers’ room is both young enough, savvy enough and unhinged(complimentary) enough to 10000% do this on purpose.

Anyway yeah. Just coming over from The Boys fandom to let yall know that Bill has already made the jump to 3d, via puppets of all things. Hope this was helpful or just vaguely ominous.