This article contains spoilers for The Boys Season 2 finale.
The Boys’ demented and thrilling second season opened up a can of Vought International worms by introducing Aya Cash’s fascist Stormfront, and revealing the company’s ties to Nazi experiments during WWII.
In Season 3, we’ll dig deeper into the disturbing history of Vought with the introduction of Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy and his former team, Payback, who The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke notes were “The Seven before The Seven”.
In Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comics, Soldier Boy serves as Payback’s leader, fighting alongside Stormfront during WWII and beyond. The character plays as a somewhat brutal but ultimately cowardly twist on Marvel’s Captain America, which gives the writing team behind The Boys a lot to work with in Season 3, given the MCU’s stranglehold on blockbuster cinema, and both America’s murky history and present state of affairs.
“One of the things I love most about the world in [The Boys] comic books isn’t just how fleshed out it is, but the history of it. It goes back 60, 70 years and it’s just as fleshed out as it is today,” Kripke said in an interview with EW. “One of the reasons that we’re getting into Soldier Boy [in season 3] and that team, Payback, is we’re interested in exploring a little bit of how we got here. Through the history of the supes, we can tell a little bit about the history of America and how we ended up in the current fraught position that we’re in. Soldier Boy gives us an opportunity to do that.”
This may give Cash an opportunity to return as Stormfront in flashbacks during Season 3, but the actress’ return hasn’t yet been officially revealed. Kripke would only confirm that “We will be exploring the history of [Payback] and all the members in it.”
Soldier Boy’s story seems set to rip off the rose-tinted glasses that older generations tend to wear when looking back at America’s past.
“There’s always been systemic racism and conflict and a lot of ugliness, yet always a fight to make things better,” Kripke says. “Certain politicians like to pitch this somehow idyllic ‘good old days’ where everything was perfect and calm. That is complete and utter bullshit. It was never that way. So, by exploring the history of Vought in the history of America, we get to make some of those points. There was never an America when they say ‘Make America Great Again.’ It was always a struggle. That’s the point. It’s a struggle to make things better.”
Ackles signed on for the role after a chance phone call to Kripke, and during a period when he was looking for post-Supernatural projects.
“He texted me back in three minutes and said, ‘I definitely want to do this!’” Kripke said. “Within a week he was booked, but it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t just randomly called. I hadn’t talked to him in months.”
During Season 2, Soldier Boy is said to have been ‘deceased’ since the early 80s, but in Season 3 he may still have a personal beef with one of Billy Butcher’s boys, or Billy himself.
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