If you started Gen V because you wanted another wild chapter of The Boys, you may have quickly realized that remembering the Gen V cast is almost as complicated as keeping track of the show’s superheroes. Marie controls blood, Emma can shrink, Jordan can switch forms, Cate can manipulate minds—and nearly everyone at Godolkin University has a secret.
The cast is one of the biggest reasons the series works. Rather than treating its young superheroes as simple extensions of The Boys, the show gives them different personalities, motivations, insecurities, and relationships. That becomes especially important in Season 2, when the surviving students return to a Godolkin University that is far more dangerous than it first appeared.
This guide breaks down the main Gen V actors and characters, explains who is still central to the story, looks at the major Season 2 additions, and clears up some common confusion about the cast. It also explains why certain performances stand out and how the ensemble changed after Season 1.
Who is in the Gen V cast?
The central Gen V ensemble includes Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, and Sean Patrick Thomas in Season 2. Hamish Linklater also becomes an important addition as the mysterious new dean.
The easiest way to understand the cast is to divide it into three groups:
- The original Godolkin students
- Returning adults and supporting characters
- New Season 2 characters and The Boys crossover appearances
Here are the most important actors and their roles.
Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau
Jaz Sinclair plays Marie Moreau, the emotional center of Gen V.
Marie arrives at Godolkin with a very personal reason for wanting to become a successful superhero. Her ability allows her to manipulate blood, which makes her power considerably more dangerous than it initially appears.
What makes Marie interesting is that her greatest strength isn’t simply her superpower. She is constantly trying to decide what kind of person she wants to become while dealing with guilt, ambition, family issues, and the expectations surrounding superheroes.
In Season 2, Marie becomes even more important to the larger mythology surrounding Godolkin University. Amazon’s official description specifically identifies her as a key part of the secret program connected to the university’s past.
Why the performance works: Sinclair plays Marie as someone who is ambitious without being naturally ruthless. That distinction becomes important because Gen V repeatedly asks whether becoming powerful inevitably means becoming corrupted.
Lizze Broadway as Emma Meyer
Lizze Broadway plays Emma Meyer, better known by the nickname Little Cricket.
Emma’s power allows her to dramatically change her size. The mechanics of her ability are tied to eating and purging, which initially makes her power seem like one of the show’s stranger jokes.
But Emma quickly becomes much more than comic relief.
Her storyline explores body image, insecurity, friendship, exploitation, and the pressure to perform for other people. Broadway’s performance is particularly effective because Emma’s vulnerability never makes her completely passive.
One useful way to understand Emma is to look at the contrast between her physical power and her emotional confidence. She can become extraordinarily small or surprisingly powerful, yet she often struggles to recognize her own value.
That contrast gives the character more depth than her unusual superhero gimmick suggests.
Maddie Phillips as Cate Dunlap
Maddie Phillips plays Cate Dunlap, one of the most morally complicated characters in the series.
Cate has telepathic abilities that allow her to influence people’s minds through touch. Her power is enormously useful, but it also creates one of the show’s central ethical questions: if you can control someone’s thoughts or actions, where does consent end?
Phillips has to play Cate in several different emotional registers. She can appear charming and affectionate in one scene and deeply unsettling in another.
Cate is also important because Gen V doesn’t present her simply as a villain. Her actions are connected to her relationships, trauma, beliefs, and understanding of what she is protecting.
That makes her one of the characters worth watching closely rather than judging from a single scene.
London Thor and Derek Luh as Jordan Li
Jordan Li is played by London Thor and Derek Luh, with the two performers portraying Jordan’s different forms.
This is one of the most distinctive casting decisions in Gen V.
Jordan can switch between two physical forms, and each form has different abilities. Thor portrays Jordan’s female form, while Luh portrays the male form.
The unusual casting is not merely a visual gimmick. Jordan’s storyline deals heavily with identity, parental expectations, relationships, and the pressure to fit into an institution obsessed with rankings and appearances.
Thor and Luh also have to make the character feel like one continuous person despite sharing the role.
That’s a surprisingly difficult acting challenge. Small changes in body language, speech, and physical presence have to communicate the same underlying personality.
Asa Germann as Sam Riordan
Asa Germann plays Sam Riordan, a powerful young supe whose experiences have left him psychologically damaged.
Sam is introduced as someone whose reality has been badly distorted by his experiences in The Woods. His strength and durability make him physically formidable, but his emotional state makes him unpredictable.
Germann’s performance is one of the more demanding parts of the ensemble because Sam’s behavior can shift rapidly between childlike vulnerability, fear, anger, and violence.
Sam also demonstrates one of the show’s recurring ideas: having a superpower doesn’t automatically make someone emotionally equipped to handle it.
Sean Patrick Thomas as Polarity
Sean Patrick Thomas plays Polarity, Andre Anderson’s father and an established superhero with magnetic abilities.
Polarity becomes increasingly significant as the story moves beyond the students themselves.
His relationship with Andre gives the series another perspective on superhero culture. Instead of looking at Godolkin entirely from the students’ point of view, the character shows what happens when superhero status becomes a family expectation.
Thomas also brings a more mature presence to a cast dominated by younger characters.
Hamish Linklater as the new dean
Hamish Linklater joins the Season 2 cast as Dean Cipher, also known as Thomas Godolkin in the season’s mythology.
The character is closely connected to the history of Godolkin University and becomes one of the major forces shaping the second season.
This casting is significant because Season 2 changes the balance of power at the university. The students aren’t simply dealing with another villain hiding in a laboratory; they are now dealing with an authority figure who can influence the institution itself.
Amazon’s official Season 2 information identifies Linklater among the principal cast and describes the mysterious new dean as someone promising students a more powerful future.
What happened to Chance Perdomo and Andre Anderson?
One of the biggest questions about the Gen V cast concerns Chance Perdomo, who played Andre Anderson in Season 1.
Perdomo died in March 2024 at age 27. His death had a direct impact on the series, and the producers chose not to recast Andre.
That means Andre remains an important part of the show’s history, but he is not simply played by another actor in Season 2.
This is an important distinction when looking at cast lists online because some databases may still show Perdomo when describing the broader Gen V cast. Season 2’s official Prime Video listing, however, presents the returning principal ensemble without Perdomo.
The decision not to recast the character also gives Season 2 a different emotional context. The show had to move forward while acknowledging the absence of a character who had been one of its original central students.
Patrick Schwarzenegger as Golden Boy
Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Luke Riordan, better known as Golden Boy.
Golden Boy is one of the most memorable characters from the beginning of the series, even though his role develops differently from what viewers might initially expect.
He represents the idealized Godolkin superhero: powerful, attractive, marketable, and apparently destined for greatness.
That image is important because Gen V repeatedly exposes the difference between how superheroes are marketed and what is actually happening behind the scenes.
Schwarzenegger’s performance helps sell that contrast. Golden Boy initially looks like the kind of character who should naturally dominate a superhero college, which makes the darker side of his story more effective.
Shelley Conn as Indira Shetty
Shelley Conn plays Indira Shetty, the dean of Godolkin University in Season 1.
Shetty is one of the adults responsible for turning Godolkin into more than a normal university. Her connection to The Woods makes her central to the conspiracy surrounding the school.
Conn’s performance works because Shetty rarely behaves like a traditional comic-book villain. She presents herself as rational, professional, and controlled.
That makes the character more disturbing: the show’s worst decisions are often made by people who genuinely believe they are being practical.
The Gen V cast and The Boys crossover characters
One of the attractions of Gen V is that it isn’t completely isolated from its parent series.
Season 1 includes appearances from major The Boys characters such as:
- Homelander
- Billy Butcher
- A-Train
- The Deep
- Victoria Neuman
- Ashley Barrett
- Soldier Boy
Season 2 continues the crossover approach, with appearances connected to characters including Starlight, Sister Sage, Firecracker, Stan Edgar, Black Noir II, and A-Train.
These appearances generally work best when they affect the story rather than functioning as simple cameos.
That’s an important distinction. A recognizable face from The Boys can attract viewers, but Gen V works better when the crossover demonstrates how events at Godolkin fit into the larger superhero power structure.
Why the Gen V casting works so well
The strongest feature of the ensemble is that the characters don’t have identical relationships with superhero culture.
Consider the differences:
Marie wants to prove herself.
Emma wants acceptance.
Jordan wants recognition and independence.
Cate wants to protect the people she cares about.
Sam wants to escape the consequences of what happened to him.
Polarity represents the older generation that has already accepted superhero culture as a way of life.
That variety prevents the show from becoming a simple story about “good students versus bad superheroes.”
A less obvious strength: contrasting acting styles
Another detail that is easy to miss is how differently the performers approach superhuman abilities.
Some actors play their powers almost like physical extensions of themselves. Others have to communicate abilities that are fundamentally psychological.
Cate’s power, for example, requires Phillips to sell conversations in which the real conflict may be happening inside another person’s mind.
Jordan’s role creates a completely different problem because two performers have to establish a unified identity.
Emma’s power requires Broadway to make exaggerated physical changes emotionally believable.
These differences keep the supernatural elements grounded in character rather than turning every power into a special-effects showcase.
What makes the Season 2 cast different?
Season 2 changes the show’s center of gravity.
The first season is largely about students discovering that Godolkin is hiding something.
The second season expands that mystery and places more emphasis on the institution’s history, the conflict between humans and supes, and the people controlling the university.
The official Season 2 synopsis describes Marie, Jordan, and Emma returning to college while Cate and Sam are celebrated as heroes. It also introduces a secret program dating back to the university’s early history.
That means the cast isn’t simply repeating the Season 1 formula.
The characters now have consequences to deal with.
They know more about the system.
And, perhaps most importantly, they no longer have the luxury of assuming that the adults running Godolkin know what they’re doing.
Common mistakes when looking up the Gen V cast
If you’re searching for the cast, a few details can easily cause confusion.
First, don’t assume every Season 1 character returns as a regular. The cast changes substantially between seasons.
Second, Jordan Li has two credited performers. London Thor and Derek Luh aren’t playing two different characters; they portray different forms of Jordan.
Third, Chance Perdomo should not be treated as a Season 2 replacement casting question. Andre was not recast following Perdomo’s death.
Fourth, crossover actors aren’t necessarily members of the main ensemble. Someone appearing in an episode of Gen V may be there because the story intersects with The Boys, rather than because they have a continuing role at Godolkin.
Who is the most important Gen V character?
If you want one character to follow most closely, Marie Moreau is probably the best choice.
The story repeatedly connects her personal history to the larger mysteries surrounding Godolkin, making her more than simply one student among many.
But the series is deliberately ensemble-driven.
Jordan provides one of its most unusual character studies. Emma supplies much of its emotional warmth. Cate complicates the idea of consent and control. Sam exposes the psychological cost of experimentation. And the supporting cast expands the story beyond the students.
That’s why reducing Gen V to a single protagonist misses part of what makes it interesting.
FAQ
Who is the main cast of Gen V?
The principal Season 2 cast includes Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau, Lizze Broadway as Emma Meyer, Maddie Phillips as Cate Dunlap, London Thor and Derek Luh as Jordan Li, Asa Germann as Sam Riordan, Sean Patrick Thomas as Polarity, and Hamish Linklater as Dean Cipher.
Is Chance Perdomo in Gen V Season 2?
Chance Perdomo played Andre Anderson in Season 1 but died in 2024. The character was not recast for Season 2, so Perdomo is not part of the new season’s returning principal cast.
Who plays Jordan Li in Gen V?
Jordan Li is portrayed by two actors: London Thor and Derek Luh. Thor plays Jordan’s female form, while Luh plays the male form. The unusual arrangement reflects the character’s ability to switch between physical forms.
Who plays Marie Moreau in Gen V?
Jaz Sinclair plays Marie Moreau. Marie is a young superhero who can manipulate blood, and her personal history becomes increasingly connected to the larger secrets surrounding Godolkin University.
Is Patrick Schwarzenegger in Gen V?
Yes. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Luke Riordan, also known as Golden Boy. He is one of the most prominent characters introduced in Season 1, although his role differs from the central returning student ensemble in Season 2.
Does Gen V have actors from The Boys?
Yes. Gen V regularly connects with The Boys through crossover appearances. Characters including Homelander, A-Train, The Deep, Starlight, Soldier Boy, Sister Sage, and others appear across the series, although their roles vary considerably.
Conclusion
The Gen V cast works because each performer brings a different interpretation of what it means to grow up with superpowers.
Jaz Sinclair gives Marie a strong emotional center, Lizze Broadway turns Emma into much more than comic relief, Maddie Phillips makes Cate deeply complicated, and London Thor and Derek Luh face the unusual challenge of creating one character together. Asa Germann gives Sam a particularly unsettling vulnerability, while Sean Patrick Thomas and Hamish Linklater expand the story into the adult power structure surrounding Godolkin.
The biggest takeaway is that Gen V isn’t successful simply because it has recognizable superhero actors or The Boys cameos. Its strongest scenes come from characters whose powers create personal problems rather than conveniently solving them.
That is also why the cast remains worth following beyond the basic list of actor names: the performances are doing much of the work that makes Godolkin University feel like a dangerous place rather than just another fictional superhero school.
