Showrunner Eric Kripke explains how they found a “meaty, fun role” for his former “Supernatural” star.

How The Boys cast Jared Padalecki as The Seven’s OG speedster Mister Marathon: ‘I want more than a cameo for Jared’

Showrunner Eric Kripke explains how they found a "meaty, fun role" for his former "Supernatural" star.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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April 22, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

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Jared Padalecki as Mister Marathon on 'The Boys' season 5. Credit:

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- *The Boys* showrunner Eric Kripke talks about casting Jared Padalecki as Mister Marathon.

- The original speedster of The Seven, pre-A-Train, is described as "a coke-blowing scumbag."

- "I walked into this season saying, 'I want more than a cameo for Jared. I want a meaty, fun role that really turns the story,'" Kripke tells EW.

The cat (in this case, the cheetah) is out of the bag, courtesy of Jared Padalecki himself.

The *Supernatural* alum spilled the beans about his character on *The Boys* season 5 during an April FACTS convention panel in Belgium. "I can finally say it," he said before confirming for the gathered audience that he's playing Mister Marathon, the original speedster of The Seven before the supe was replaced with A-Train (Jessie T. Usher).

"My reaction is, it's totally fine," Eric Kripke, showrunner of *The Boys* and Padalecki's former showrunner on *Supernatural*, tells ** after the reveal. "We're close enough to the episode. It increases excitement for the episode. Enough people online were talking about it that I'm sure he saw it and he was like, 'Oh okay! It must be out.'"

Jared Padalecki as Mister Marathon on 'The Boys' season 5.

Padalecki's Mister Marathon will appear alongside Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy and Misha Collins as a still-unspecific character on episode 5 of *The Boys* final season for a highly anticipated *Supernatural* reunion.

Padalecki has been on Kripke's mind for a long time. "I've wanted to get him on the show for years, but he was busy shooting *Walker* and so our schedules never lined up," he says. "I knew that *Walker* was ending and so he would have a window that he could shoot. It was more like I walked into this season saying, 'I want more than a cameo for Jared. I want a meaty, fun role that really turns the story.'"

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Kripke credits Judalina Neira, a scribe in the season 5 writers' room who pitched Padalecki as Mister Marathon. "I jumped on that," the showrunner adds. "And then it puts him in the mythology of the show in a really fun way. He used to be at Seven Tower, he was in that conference room, he was a part of the lore. So I thought that was perfect. And part of me just loved the idea of him playing a coke-blowing scumbag because he's such a good guy both in real life and in all the roles he plays. I just wanted him to be really sleazy, and he crushed it."

Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles on 'The Boys' season 5.

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*The Boys* season 5 is fully into the final battle in the war against Homelander (Antony Starr), who's determined to become a god by tracking down V1, the original and more potent version of Compound V that can potentially make him immortal.

Kripke tees up the big *Supernatural* reunion moment in episode 5, which drops on Amazon's Prime Video streaming platform on April 29. "I'm just excited that [fans will] be able to see those three guys together playing in scenes — and playing totally different people," he says. "But you can still feel the chemistry. Once we figured out this would be perfect for Jared, that was when we really realized we should do this Jared-Jensen storyline, because that's what people wanna see."

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