Homelander may have murdered Black Noir, but his replacement in the fourth season of The Boys has his own quirks.
The previous episode revealed that Noir II is narcoleptic and can suddenly fall asleep, and as it turns out, this was something they got from actor Nathan Mitchell.
Black Noir II’s Narcolepsy in The Boys
Though he may be a replacement, the new Black Noir of The Seven is given his arc for the fourth season, and it’s revealed that he’s still a supe—but one that’s specially trained in acting. Besides all the usual invulnerability powers, Noir II also has the ability to fly.
This new Noir spends a good chunk of the season just complaining about how he’s not been given enough to work on when it comes to impersonating the real Noir, and on top of just how much more annoying he could be, the series also made him narcoleptic:
The narcolepsy seems like a throwaway gag for this new Noir, but it has another payoff when Homelander sends the Deep and Noir to take out Butcher and Annie in the Boy's headquarters. In the middle of a fight with Butcher, Noir just stops in his tracks, making Butcher exclaim, “The c*nt’s narcoleptic.”
Sleeping on the Job
In a recent interview with Happy Sad Confused, The Boys cast had revealed that Nathan Mitchell, the actor who plays Noir, was narcoleptic in real life. Deep actor Chace Crawford explained, "We’ll be in scenes and he’s literally asleep. He’ll fall asleep.” Homelander actor Antony Starr also backs Crawford up by explaining:
"He legit falls asleep. There’s a line in there – ‘Is Noir asleep?’ – and he goes, ‘I’m narcoleptic’. Which Nathan [Mitchell] is in real life. He’s fallen asleep at that table in that suit in real life."
Not His First Rodeo
As it turns out, the narcolepsy isn’t the only condition that Mitchell had that they incorporated into the Noir character. The original Noir, who Mitchell also played, was revealed to have a nut allergy, and this was how he was incapacitated by Maeve when he was taking down Annie.
What’s funny is that they decided to add that part of the character when they realized that Mitchell was allergic in real life. Talking to TVLine, showrunner Eric Kripke explained, "The actors and I were at Comic-Con promoting season 1, and that was where I learned that Nathan Mitchell, the actor who plays Black Noir, has a super severe nut allergy… Like one of those people who can’t be in the same room with nuts, like a vampire with garlic."
Having Noir allergic to peanuts was actually the series poking fun at Superman having a weakness for kryptonite. Kripke continued, "When you think of superhero kryptonite, you think of things like kryptonite… I was just tickled by the idea that someone as strong and powerful as Noir could be taken out by something so simple and something that so many people suffer from."
Watch out for The Boys now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.