Robertson notes in The Boys Omnibus vol. 6 that he had seen Pegg in the UK sitcom Spaced, where he plays comic-store worker and struggling artist Tim Bisley, alongside Jessica Hynes’s Daisy Steiner. However, Pegg’s later success in Shaun of the Dead made his connection to The Boys far more significant than anyone intended.

“I guess Darick assumed I would forever be consigned to culty British television … I don’t hold that against him, I thought much the same at the time.”

– Simon Pegg

The Boys Creator Didn’t Ask Simon Pegg to Use His Likeness

Despite starring in Spaced, Pegg himself being a draw wasn’t on the creators’ minds when they used his likeness. Pegg speculates that The Boys‘ creators never expected his subsequent fame, which exploded after starring in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead, saying:

I guess Darick assumed I would forever be consigned to culty British television and would never emerge into the mainstream enough for me or anyone else to make the connection. I don’t hold that against him, I thought much the same at the time. As it turned out, a cricket bat and a zombie outbreak in Crouch End, North London put paid to that speculation…

This is something Robertson has confirmed, revealing “I never thought the reference would get so much attention.” Despite this, it couldn’t have been more perfectly timed – The Boys #1 debuted in 2006, and the comic series ran until 2012. Meanwhile, Pegg starred in Shaun of the Dead in 2004 and Hot Fuzz in 2007, following these comedy hits with 2009’s Star Trek, 2011’s Paul, and an increased role in 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (reprising his role as Benji Dunn from Mission: Impossible III.) Pegg’s star was on the rise as The Boys grew in fame, and the actor was vocal in his support for the project, setting up a connection that would eventually result in him getting a new role in the eventual adaptation.

Hughie was inspired by an old friend of Ennis’, with Pegg’s likeness chosen to balance the hero’s key attributes: “innocence and tough determination.”

Why The Boys’ Hughie Was Based on Simon Pegg

These details make it clear that using Simon Pegg’s likeness wasn’t an attempt to piggyback on his fame by creating a character in his image (in fact, Hughie was originally inspired by an old friend of Ennis’). Rather, Robertson reveals that Pegg’s look was his solution to a difficult brief from Ennis, who asked that Hughie should embody both “innocence and tough determination” – two qualities the artist considered contradictory. Indeed, Robertson names Hughie as his favorite character to draw because of the challenge created by that dichotomy.

Even Hughie’s nickname is used to reference his mix of innocence and determination, with the original comics including Elizabeth Shane’s poem ‘Wee Hughie.’

However, Hughie’s mix of innocence and determination aren’t simply character details – they’re essential to the story of The Boys. In the final arc of the comics, it’s revealed that Butcher is planning to kill off everyone in the world who has been altered by Compound V, using a specially devised weapon. Butcher admits that he knows on some level that what he’s planning is monstrous and – from the very start – has been grooming Hughie to try and stop him. Hughie succeeds almost accidentally, when he almost falls to his death while confronting Butcher. Butcher saves Hughie but is injured by the fall, left unable to trigger his device. Their final conversation makes it clear that it was Hughie’s decency that ultimately saved thousands upon thousands of lives, despite years of Butcher trying to impart his dark worldview to his protégé.

Pegg Was ‘Recast’ as Hugh Campbell Sr. In the TV Show

While Jack Quaid plays Hughie in Amazon’s The Boys, Pegg voiced the character in the animated spin-offThe Boys Presents: Diabolical, and also played Hugh Campbell Sr. in the live-action show as a nod to his place in the original comics. The show puts its own spin on the ideas in Highland Laddie by depicting Hughie’s father as a warning about inaction. In a 2018 interview, Simon Pegg told Screen Rant:

He represents the possibility of Hughie not taking action. And the show begins with this terrible tragedy that happens to Hugie and he has two choices; he can stay on the sofa with Dad like every Campbell man has in the past, or he can actually change his life. And so, as a sort of visual representation of Hughie’s possible destiny, the Dad works really well as a character.

Ultimately, Pegg really was the perfect choice for Hughie, both as someone whose early look captured everything the character was meant to be about, and as a celebrity whose history with comics – and even Garth Ennis’ work in particular – meant that he was overjoyed to see himself drafted into The Boys‘ anti-Supe taskforce, offering his support to the franchise ever since.