Laz Alonso has been cast in a key role in an upcoming Amazon series, The Boys. 

Based on the Wildstorm/Dynamite comic book series of the same name, it has been given a straight-to-series order at the streaming service.

The series, created by Supernatural creator and Timeless co-creator Eric Kripke “is set in a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame. It revolves around a group of vigilantes known informally as “The Boys,” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty.”

Preacher’s Evan Goldberg, along with Seth Rogen, will direct.

An adaptation of The Boys has actually been in the works since 2008, when Columbia Pictures optioned the property.

Not much movement on the project followed, until 2 years later, August 2010, when Adam McKay signed on to direct the film. At the time, McKay revealed that a script was being rewritten for what he would later describe as “a $100 million, rated-R, anti-superhero movie,” and was hopeful that production would begin the following January (2011).

That didn’t happen, so skip ahead another year, to February of 2012, when it was reported that Columbia Pictures had abandoned the project, putting it into turnaround for another studio to hopefully pick up. Then, that August on Twitter, McKay revealed the project was still in development, but at Paramount.

4 years later, in 2016 it was announced that Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Neal Moritz would adapt it as a cable TV series at Cinemax.  Ennis, but not as a film; instead, they are aiming for a cable TV series with Cinemax as its home. That clearly didn’t have much movement, until now, and it has moved once again, from Cinemax, to now Amazon.

Alonso is the first of “The Boys” to be cast. Jessie T. Usher, Nathan Mitchell, Erin Moriarty, Chace Crawford, Antony Starr and Dominique McElligott have been cast as superhero group “The Seven.”

Out of their squad of six, there is Mother’s Milk, who Alonso will potray. Here’s the character’s description: “A large African -merican man, he is a highly patient and methodical man, taught by his father to check every possible angle and means of attack, and can be somewhat fussy (getting annoyed whenever anyone doesn’t put a drink coaster under their glasses). He is the only member on the team, aside from the retired Greg Mallory, that is an American citizen by birth. His nickname was apparently because he is the “purest,” i.e. most goodhearted, member of the team. He is the only member of the unit to have been exposed to Compound V since conception. As a result, he was born needing regular doses of his mother’s breast milk to survive. His brother was killed by the manifestation of superpowers. He joined the United States Army, volunteered for the Rangers, and became an army heavyweight boxer. In a championship match, he manifested powers suddenly and punched an opponent’s head off. He was subsequently released from the military and was recruited by Butcher and Mallory for the first incarnation of The Boys. His powers and abilities include superhuman strength and durability, all brought about thanks to his exposure to Compound V – the drug that grants superpowers to people in The Boys’ universe; most samples of it only give temporary superpowers, but the pure stuff makes the effects permanent.”

Alonso can be seen in the upcoming film, Traffik. 

Deadline first reported the news of Alonso’s casting.