The first three episodes of The Boys season 3 hit Prime Video this Friday, and while he doesn't really have a major part to play in those early instalments, Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy is set to make a big impact.
As showrunner Eric Kripke points out in an interview with Total Film, the show's twisted take on Captain America is not a very nice guy (in fact, he's a compete asshole), but he is very formidable, and Billy Butcher believes he can capitalize on that power to finally take Homelander out for good.
"He’s come out of World War Two," Kripke says of Ackles' character. "So he’s been around a really long time and he’s exactly as racist and misogynist as you would expect someone from the mid-1940s to be. The Boys get on the mystery of what happened to Soldier Boy because he hasn’t been around with the hope that maybe through that is an answer of a way to take down Homelander," he continues. "So it's interesting to have Homelander potentially be up against somebody as strong as him. He's not a guy who has to deal with his own mortality very much – so when you put him into that situation, it's pretty interesting."
Soldier Boy underwent a few significant changes from page to screen, and will have a very different role to play in the series. For one, his involvement in the already notorious "Herogasm" episode has been drastically altered.
In the comics, Soldier Boy is basically a dim-witted wannabe, and Homelander takes full advantage by convincing the naive supe to sleep with him by putting an opportunity to join The Seven on the table. "I love that scene and it's hilarious, but for a dozen reasons, all of which will be revealed when you see the season, it ultimately just didn't track," Kripke explains in a separate interview with EW. "We talked about it. It conflicted with a lot of the other things we were trying to build with Soldier Boy. So, unfortunately, that one had to go."
Herogasm is still just as debauched and insane as you've been led to believe, but certain other things have (thankfully) been toned down just a little.
Be sure to check back on Thursday for our review of The Boys season 3.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.