‘Gen V’ Star Lizze Broadway On Emma’s Hero Arc, Honoring Chance Perdomo

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the season two finale of Gen V.

Filming season two of Gen V was no easy feat, but Lizze Broadway couldn’t be happier to see her character, Emma Meyer, step into her role as a leader.

“It felt pretty amazing because when I first read the script of the first episode of season two, it seemed like a completely different character,” Broadway says over Zoom, wearing her own Godolkin University crewneck.

“What she dealt with in season one was very much the idea of, ‘Who am I?’ and all these insecurities and doubt,” the actor adds. “And I think what a true leader is, is overcoming yourself, your insecurities and your fears, for the greater good, which is to honor Andre. So I wanted to honor Chance as much as I could through my performance.”

Before the cast and crew began work on season two of Gen V, Chance Perdomo, who starred as Andre Anderson, died in March 2024 at 27 years old. Rather than recast the role, the season’s storylines were reworked. Part of that retooling was killing off Andre and following the characters as they explored their own grief.

Although Emma didn’t know Andre for a long time, he was the first person who believed in her and made her feel like she could be a hero. So, throughout season two, Emma honors Andre by taking on a leadership role, helping other underdogs believe in themselves and rallying Andre’s distraught dad, Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas), to take action instead of giving up.

For all the gore and shock value of Gen V, the show is rooted in the coming-of-age experiences of Emma and her friends. Part of Emma’s emotional journey is navigating her eating disorder and how it relates to her powers.

“Everyone said it was an eating disorder, but when you’re so much in denial, you’re just like, ‘This is my identity,’” Broadway says. “Especially with the kids in the Vought universe, your identity is your powers. So you don’t really think of it as anything other than, ‘This is how I control my power.’”

During imprisonment at Elmira, Emma admits to Cate (and herself) that, powers aside, she feels like she’s never going to be able to stop purging.

“It’s interesting because she’s learning that she has power over her eating disorder, rather than the eating disorder having power over her,” Broadway says.

In the finale, released on Wednesday, Emma reminds Marie (Jaz Sinclair) and Cate (Maddie Phillips) that everyone has baggage and don’t have to carry those burdens alone. Broadway hopes that message, that people don’t have to be perfect to be accepted and loved, resonates with fans.

“You tie up so much of your worth in what you can do. And I think that really showcases throughout the show that your worth isn’t based on what you do or what you think you can do. You are inherently worthy just by existing,” Broadway says. “And I really hope people gravitate to that, but also realize you don’t have to have it all together.”

As if Emma doesn’t have enough on her plate, she also ends up in a love triangle with Sam (Asa Germann), her ex, and Greg (Stephen Thomas Kalyn), her new crush.

“I think Emma’s whole journey this season is really about the integration of becoming who you are, who you wanna be, and who you really are,” Broadway says. “And I think we did a good job of that over this season. So with Sam, it’s a bigger trigger point for her where, I think there’s this invisible thread with someone you love, especially with two misfits coming together, that you still love this person, but also the new side of you is saying, ‘Don’t fall back into old patterns.’ So it’s just this push and pull.”

As for Greg? Well, he’s just hot.

“Greg is hot, and I think, honestly, Emma has so much bigger fish to fry this season,” Broadway says.

“I don’t think a boy’s on her radar,” she adds. “I hate to be the girl that’s just like, ‘Emma chooses herself,’ but in essence, she is the girl that chooses herself. She chooses Andre, that’s what I would say. She chooses Andre rather than Greg and Sam.”

For the record, Broadway is Team Sam.

“Lizze always wants Sam and Emma to be endgame,” she says. “That’s just my personal opinion, but I think Emma is scared to trust and love another person when it was so rooted in trauma.”

Boy dilemmas aside, Emma and her friends take care of the main task at hand in season two: defeating Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater), the founder of Godolkin University.

After fleeing God U and going on the run, they get recruited by Annie January/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) to join the resistance. Broadway was just as starstruck as Emma to be in the presence of greatness, but her favorite part of the scene is her wardrobe — Andre’s gray sweatshirt from season one.

“I wore it because I wanted to bring Chance and Andre through the rest of the season,” Broadway says.

That’s not the only notable detail of Emma’s outfit in the scene. Eagle-eyed fans may notice that Emma re-wears her colorful gummy bear necklace, which was previously seen during the season one finale when Sam hurt her feelings, leading her to shrink.

“I’m really big into wardrobe and using it to tell a story,” Broadway explains. “Everything Emma wears, I curate to tell an arc. She wore the gummy bear necklace last season in the finale and I wanted her to wear it again because she’s finally integrated who she is and who she wants to be.”

Gen V hasn’t been renewed for season three yet, but there are still many questions left to be explored. Does Emma actually want to be a hero? Does God U even exist anymore? What does the Gen V world look like after whatever goes down in the fifth and final season of The Boys?

“If we’re joining the resistance, I think it would be kind of like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when they go away from the school,” Broadway theorizes. “But what do I know? They don’t tell me anything.”

“Emma, for me, is such a fun character to play because she’s so complex and gives me a really good container to be messy, fun, weird and quirky, and the things that she says or the way I can say them as an artist is really, really fun,” Broadway says. “You always want so many more seasons, but I just want one more. One more to close her out would be amazing, but if we had more, that’s also amazing.”

After all, what other production would build Broadway her own giant red Solo cup filled with heated water so she can film a beer pong scene at a frat party?

“That’s like, the most privileged I ever felt as an actor,” she says.

All episodes of season two of Gen V are streaming on Prime Video.