Soldier Boy doesn’t appear to be the only spoof character from The Avengers on his way to The Boys, as showrunner Eric Kripke has teased the introduction of an entire parody team. Taking to Twitter, Kripke teased the upcoming third season of the popular Amazon series by posting an image of the cover page from the first episode’s script. Written by Craig Rosenberg, the episode is merely titled Payback, which seems to be a reference to the superhero group of the same name in the source material.
#TheBoys Will Return.#Season3 Begins Filming Early 2021
You’re Not Fucking Ready.#TheBoysTV@TheBoysTV@PrimeVideo@SPTV#SPNFamily@Sethrogen@antonystarr@JackQuaid92@KarlUrban@ErinMoriarty_@lazofficial@KarenFukuhara@The_JessieT@itsNateMitchellpic.twitter.com/sg0CdD74Pc— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) October 14, 2021
In the comic book series, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Payback is introduced as the second-most powerful superhero team in the world, behind the Seven of course. Included in the team is Soldier Boy, a Captain America parody, who’ll be played by Jensen Ackles of Supernatural in the season 3. Other members of the group include Stormfront, partially inspired by Thor; Tek-Knight, a take on Iron Man and Batman; Crimson Countess, a parody of Scarlet Witch; Swatto, a bug-like superhero inspired by Ant-Man and Wasp; Mind-Droid, a parody of Vision; and Eagle the Archer, a Hawkeye parody.
Fans of the series will know that we’ve already seen two of these characters on the show. Played by Aya Cash, a gender-swapped Stormfront was featured heavily in season 2, joining the Seven at the start of the season to replace Translucent. After her body and reputation were left severely damaged by the end of the season, it’s hard to say if Stormfront will be a part of Payback in the TV series. Played by Langston Kerman, Eagle the Archer was also featured as a member of the Church of the Collective in season 2, though he defected from the organization by the end of the season.
We can probably expect to see some other deviations from the source material. Soldier Boy is a bit of a bumbling coward who poses no real threat to Homelander (Antony Starr) in the comic books, but Kripke has teased that the live-action version of the Captain America spoof will be of much bigger concern for the leader of the Seven.
“He will be threatened. Soldier Boy is pretty close in power to Homelander, and was basically Homelander before Homelander, and for a much longer period of time,” Kripke said of Ackles’ character on Twitter. “So, I think he is really threatened, not just by his strength, but that Soldier Boy really is a huge celebrity in part of America.”
Q: #AskTheBoys How will Homelander react to Soldier Boy? Will he be threatened?
- @JLMousseau— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) October 12, 2021
Though he hasn’t yet been seen on the series, Soldier Boy has been referenced in previous episodes of The Boys. Vought head Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) mentions that Soldier Boy fought in World War II, “killing Germans by the dozen” as one of the company’s very first superheroes. At the end of that very conversation, Edgar also mentions another member of Payback by reminding Homelander to attend the premiere of the fictional movie Tek-Knight Lives.
The Boys recently wrapped up its second season on Amazon Prime Video, and the plan as of now is for season 3 to begin filming in early 2021. This news comes to us from Eric Kripke on Twitter.
