Jensen Ackles may portray a hero on Supernatural, but it seems like we’ll be seeing a darker side of the fan favorite actor in the next season of The Boys. Following the end of his 15-season run as Dean Winchester alongside Jared Padalecki’s Sam, Ackles’ next major television role will bring him into the popular Amazon Original. It has already been announced that he’ll be playing the role of Soldier Boy, a Supe from the comics who’s already been referenced on the TV series.
Speaking with Variety, series showrunner Eric Kripke spoke about Ackles’ upcoming introduction in The Boys. In the comic books, Soldier Boy is seen as a bit of a coward who doesn’t appear to be as corrupted as the other members of the Seven. Asked if Soldier Boy would be presented as more of an “innocent” in the TV series version like he is in the comics, Kripke made it clear that we shouldn’t expect to go into Season 3 rooting for the TV version of the character.
“I think anyone expecting Jensen to show up and be a good guy, they will be disappointed. I’ll say that! [Laughs] In the comics he’s mostly just kind of bumbling and subservient to Homelander, I would say. As we’re writing him in this, we’re getting to really talk about the history of Vought because he’s like John Wayne: He’s one of these guys that’s been around for decades of Vought history. And he was Homelander before Homelander, so he’s from a different era, but he’s got the ego and the ambition - it just comes across in a different way because he’s from a different time.”
Ackles’ casting as Soldier Boy is particularly interesting, as the character is a clear parody of Marvel’s Captain America. Previously, Ackles had auditioned to play Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger before Chris Evans was ultimately cast. As fate would have it, getting to play a spoof of the role he missed out on happened by pure chance, as Kripke also detailed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. how Ackles’ casting as Soldier Boy came to be.
“My assumption was, he’s just finished his 15 years [on Supernatural]. I can’t imagine he wants to dive into another project. But, as luck would have it, he called me for a completely other issue. He wanted to pick my brain about a project.”
During the call, the two began speaking about The Boys, and Kripke mentioned that they were looking to cast Soldier Boy. After Ackles took a look at the audition pages for the character, he was immediately on board.
“He texted me back in three minutes and said, ‘I definitely want to do this!’ 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.”
The Boys just wrapped its second season on Amazon Prime Video, and although it’s not clear when filming will begin, the series is expected to debut its third season next year. Although it seems that the sinister Stormfront (Aya Cash) will be indisposed heading into season 3, Butcher and the Boys may still be in trouble if Soldier Boy is anything like Homelander, as Kripke suggests.
Details of this story come to us from Variety as well as Entertainment Weekly.
