The Boys’ Long-Awaited Character Death Makes Me Wish I Could Watch His Fake M

Warning: SPOILERS For The Boys Season 5, Episode 5 - "One Shots"The Boys season 5 finally killed off one of its most reliably entertaining recurring characters, and his death makes me wish the fake movie he directed was real. The Boys season 5, episode 5, "One Shots," was a remarkable outing that concluded with Homelander (Antony Starr) killing Firecracker (Valorie Curry), but the death of Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) was also significant.

Adam Bourke was introduced in The Boys season 2 as the "visionary director" of Dawn of the Seven, Vought International's mega-budget superhero team-up blockbuster. Bourke was a parody of real-life superhero movie directors, especially Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon, just as Dawn of the Seven was The Boys' spin on DC's Justice League and Marvel Studios' The Avengers.

In The Boys season 5, episode 5, Adam Bourke had fallen from the heights of Hollywood and became a theater director. Bourke saw brilliance in Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) and mentored the Supe as the lead of his biopic about The Bee Gees. Unfortunately for Adam, he was the victim of Noir's feud with The Deep (Chace Crawford), who gruesomely murdered the director on the toilet.

Dawn Of The Seven Was The Boys’ Best Fake Movie

Adam Bourke may have passed away, but he leaves behind the greatest fake movie in The Boys' universe: Dawn of the Seven. Even though the version of Dawn of the Seven that hit movie theaters differed from Bourke's vision, thanks to an unwanted rewrite from Joss Whedon, it was a triumph for The Boys' most high-profile fictional filmmaker.

The Boys season 3 began with the world premiere of Dawn of the Seven, with the Prime Video series showing the climactic battle between Homelander, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), Starlight (Erin Moriarty), A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), and the original Black Noir taking on Stormfront (Charlize Theron). The scene was a spot-on parody of Zack Snyder and Josh Whedon's superhero smash-'em-ups.

The Boys viewers know all too well that the noble superheroes Dawn of the Seven portrays are a lie. The Seven, as the world's heroic protectors, are pure Vought fiction. Homelander has driven away or outright killed many of his teammates and poses the greatest threat to the world. Dawn of the Seven even slyly continues The Boys' in-joke that there are rarely seven members of The Seven.

Yet, as a consumer of every real-life superhero movie Marvel Studios and DC Films release, I'd be happy to park myself in my local IMAX and watch the unbridled fantasy of Dawn of the Seven. Adam Bourke's blockbuster is one of the sharpest and most accurate reflections of Hollywood's superhero excess in The Boys, which has been eerily on-point in its send-ups of our real world.

It's even possible that Dawn of the Seven might actually be a great superhero movie. Far stranger things have happened in The Boys.

Adam Bourke Was One Of The Boys & Gen V’s Best Recurring Characters

Countless celebrities have guest-starred in The Boys, many playing twisted versions of their real-life personas, but Adam Bourke endured from The Boys seasons 2 to 5 as one of the show's best recurring characters. Bourke enjoyed a fascinating character arc, and the smarmy director's story evolved with every appearance.

Adam Bourke's low-key importance to The Boys was honored by Vought's tribute to the late director on Instagram:

Adam Bourke's early appearances in The Boys seasons 2 and 3 exposed him as a sniveling no-talent who was too big for his britches. Vought's marketing machine was going to make Dawn of the Seven a hit no matter what, and Bourke was fortunate to ride along and claim the biggest hit of his career, as well as a dalliance with Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie).

The Boys made Adam Bourke a symbol of #MeToo in its fictional universe. Gen V season 1 revealed that after exposing himself to Minka Kelly, Bourke was relegated to teaching acting classes at Godolkin University. Yet Adam was back to directing Vought movies in The Boys season 4, and he even pitched a TV series starring Homelander's son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti).

Pay attention to Adam Bourke's story, and you can chart the many ways that The Boys has parodied the various ups and downs and scandals of real-life Hollywood. The disgraces of Josh Whedon, Harvey Weinstein, and many others are reflected in Bourke's failing upwards (and down, and back up, and down again) as a major Hollywood director.

Adam Bourke is as much a symbol as Homelander of how depraved The Boys' universe is, but every time he shows his face mattered, beyond the reliably amusing low-rent comedy he provokes. It's actually shocking that Adam Bourke survived all the way to The Boys season 5, but his ignominious death was fitting.

Meanwhile, I still want to watch the entire Dawn of the Seven movie, if only it were possible for The Boys to #ReleaseTheBourkeCut.