There's a lot to unpack in the new trailer for The Boys Season 3. Easily a standout in the nearly 2-minute clip, however, is Soldier Boy, played by Supernatural alum Jensen Ackles.
It presents a lot of questions, but perhaps one that every fan wants to know more about right is his powers, and the weight those powers hold against Billy Butcher and his gang of outlaws.
The Boys Season 3: Soldier Boy is Vought’s First Packaged Superhero
While Stormfront (Aya Cash) was the first subject to receive superpowers from Compound V (as revealed in Season 2), Soldier Boy was the first to be marketed as a Vought International superhero. During World War II, he was away battling Nazis in Germany and heading his own team of heroes known as Payback.
The trailer shows Soldier Boy in action with his trademark shield, but the character isn't limited to flashbacks. Because Ackles previously stated that his character has "been essentially in captivity for a while" before Butcher's squad finds him in present day, the last moments feature a bearded Soldier Boy.
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Will The Boys Season 3 Showcase Soldier Boy as Vought’s Strongest Villain?
Soldier Boy is a parody of Captain America in the original Garth Ennis comics. He's an inept American soldier from World War II who's been given incredible strength and speed thanks to Vought's Compound V superhero formula. Eric Kripke's television version of The Boys alters the plotlines of numerous characters, and it's likely that he changes Soldier Boy's backstory as well.
Soldier Boy, like Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a man out of time in The Boys Season 3 trailer. In Season 2, Stan Edgar, the head of Vought, mentions that Soldier Boy is one of Vought's early and greatest superheroes, foreshadowing his significance within the series. This marks his transition from a minor comic book character to a pivotal figure in the show.
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A point made by Screen Rant, for example, notes that the new trailer may be hinting that Soldier Boy is set to be the series’ most powerful enemy “by deliberately contrasting the music and images of Soldier Boy with the music and images of the other characters.”
The article also mentions that The Boys is one of the most anticipated returning shows in 2022 since the show's creative team is very careful in its filmmaking and marketing choices. Every move made by the showrunners, both in the story and in the promotional material, points to Soldier Boy being the most powerful new character of the show and the central figure of Season 3, it said.
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When Will The Boys Season 3 Be Released?
The Boys Season 3 will drop its first three episodes on Amazon Prime Video on June 3 before transitioning to a weekly release schedule. The final is set for a July 8 release.
In case you were wondering, the song used in The Boys Season 3 trailer is Imagine Dragons' new song Bones, which is the first new music off their upcoming album Mercury — Act 2.