And while Season 2 significantly raises the stakes for everyone at God U, there was one very important member of the core group missing — Andre, who was played by the late Chance Perdomo.

TooFab spoke to some of the cast ahead of the show’s second season premiere Wednesday, where they shared how they honored Perdomo both on and off screen.

“Between season one and season two, we lost the character of Andre. So it’s how all the characters deal with that in all their particular ways and how that forces them to, again, to mature and decide that his death can’t be for nothing,” Sean Patrick Thomas, who plays Polarity, Andre’s dad on The Boys spinoff.

As for how the show paid homage to Perdomo, Thomas said it did so by “leaning into” what happened to the American-British actor, who died on March 29, 2024 at the age of 27, following a motorcycle accident.

“I think the show honors him by not walking away from it by leaning into what happened to Chance. And by leaning into it, they found a way to honor him and to honor his contribution to Gen V,” he explained. “Gen V wouldn’t be what it is without Chance Perdomo. No matter how long the show goes on, he will always be a part of the DNA of the show. And in the storyline of season two, the writers did a wonderful job of weaving his passing into the storyline and having it have real impact on the things that we all do throughout the season.”

Jaz Sinclair and London Thor, who play Marie Moreau and Jordan Li, respectively, also commended the writers, telling TooFab that both Perdomo and his character can be felt “throughout the whole show.”

“I think the writers and the creators did really well with such a difficult circumstance. I think the whole season is dedicated to him and you really feel Andre and Chance throughout the whole show,” Thor shared.

As for how Season 2 moves the story for everyone at Godolkin University forward, Lizze Broadway and Maddie Phillips said there’s a major “growth spurt” that happens in the second season.

“I really do feel like the whole show went through, like, puberty,” Broadway — who plays size-shifting Emma — quipped.

“There’s, there’s definitely been some really big growth spurts,” Phillips, who stars as traitor Cate, added, “I mean, the last season ended with this huge divide between the homies. I don’t know if we can even say homies anymore. It’s Cate and Sam versus everybody else, basically. And so, when we pick up in the next season, we experience all of the tension that comes from that.”

Picking up eight months after that epic finale — which saw Homelander blast Marie, Andre, Jordan, and Emma with his heat vision and Sam and Cate portrayed as heroes by Vought’s public relations, as the true events of the massacre are covered up — Broadway told TooFab that everyone “meets their characters in a very new way” in Season 2.

“And the relationships are so much more different,” she added. “We don’t want to give too much away, but there is a huge mystery that unfolds in this next season that really ups the stakes in a really huge way,” Phillips teased.

For Broadway’s character, Emma, balancing grief and the idea of trying to be a hero proves to be a “messy task.”

“You kind of meet her in the stages of grief. And over the course of the season, she’s — this idea of trying to be a hero, but also who you are. And having those two identities merge can be really messy, so I think growth and integration is messy,” shea dded. “And I think that’s kind of her arc this season.”

For Cate, the outcome of the betrayal she makes in Season 1 come to light, with Phillips telling TooFab, “It was definitely setting up for where she is right now because she was being… very heavily manipulated in the first season and that led to a lot of choices, and she ended up not agreeing with the person that was manipulating her, but that didn’t actually make her end up on the same side as everybody else. Which was a really interesting twist actually. And, and so when we pick up in the next season, you see that she’s still in this spot that is not the same spot as everybody else.”

She continued, “There’s a lot of different changes in perspective along the way. But what’s so interesting about this show, is that even though you think that might lead to a specific conclusion, you’re often mistaken. So the arc is like, where’s it going? It’s really complex and it’s unpredictable.”

That also means a lot is on the line in Season 2, with the students of God U grappling with whether they want to be the good guys or the bad ones … and which side is truly which?

“First and foremost, these students end up having to choose how they want to proceed from here on out. Do they want to be a part of the establishment or do they wanna be a part of the resistance?” Thomas stressed. “And it forces them to grow up very quickly and decide what type of hero that they really wanna be.”

“For Marie, this chapter is largely about discovering what her power is,” added Sinclair, “and what it means to have that kind of power and how to use it, for sure.”

Season 2 of Gen V premieres Wednesday September 17 on Prime Video.