With Episode 4 of The Boys dropping on Prime Video, folks got their first explosive look at Soldier Boy, who was one of the first supes on the planet, member of the wartime team Payback. Taking on the role is none other than Jensen Ackles, who many people may know as Dean Winchester from Supernatural.
Interestingly enough, the creator of Supernatural and the showrunner of The Boys happen to be the same person, Eric Kripke. But while Ackles and Kripke share a history, Ackles was a fan of the series and excited to be a part of it.
Warning: There are some minor spoilers leading up to the end of Episode 4 of Season 3 of The Boys.
The latter half of Episode 4 sees the introduction of Soldier Boy to The Boys. We also get to see a little bit of his super powers, which includes super-strength and being able to blast explosive energy from his chest.
Showrunner Kripke was more than happy to have Ackles join the series. “I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a Jensen Ackles fan,” Kripke told GameSpot. “You know he is equally adept at drama, comedy, emotion, action. And those were all things I needed Soldier Boy to be. And by the same respect, I also needed Soldier Boy to be threatening, and I’ve done so many episodes with Jensen that you can only do so many episodes of a show before you start doing evil versions of that character. So like, I knew he could do that, too.
“I have such high regard for him as an actor. And I just knew he could do something completely different than the character he’d been doing for the last 15 years. And I think he was really excited by that possibility as well. And he does, he creates a character that is just totally different from Dean from Supernatural. And I think people will be blown away when they see it.”
As for the supe team Soldier Boy was a member of, Payback were essentially The Seven before The Seven existed.. And much like other elements from the TV show, it all comes back to the source material, the comic book series. “One of the things I really love about Garth’s [Ennis] book is how much he delves into the history of that world. And I wanted this season to have a flavor of that. Seeing Payback showing up in the middle of a military campaign–can’t be World War Two, because the timeline doesn’t add up. But still, we found ways to do it.
“The Payback we find in the present day of the story are like a bunch of has-beens, which are my favorite characters to write. You, at one time, were the most famous person on the planet, but you know, but now you’re doing a review at an amusement park. And I find humor and pathos in those kinds of characters. I have great affection for those kinds of characters.”
New episodes of The Boys arrive every Friday, and Episode 6 will be a big one for the show, as it will adapt the Herogasm storyline, which is a bit remixed from the source material, but still just as dirty. And there’s more to come as The Boys was just renewed for Season 4.
In GameSpot’s review of Season 3 of The Boys, Mat Elfring said, “The Boys continues to be one of the best superhero TV shows. It’s a series that knows its identity and leans in hard to it every single season. It continues to grow and evolve the world it lives in without losing that identity either. The cast is delivering some of the best performances of the series here as well. The Boys Season 3 is a must-watch for summer viewing.”
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