Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) may have been put on ice for the fourth season of The Boys, but he’s expected to return with a fury for the final season.
With SB being introduced to fans as an unwilling ally of Butcher in the third season, showrunner Eric Kripke has confirmed that he has a very different role in The Boys Season 5.
Soldier Boy’s Role in The Boys Season 5
Though Soldier Boy had initially found himself locking horns with Homelander when they first met, Season 5 will have him fighting for the supes this time. Talking to GamesRadar, Kripke explains:
"Soldier Boy is really driven to kill Butcher after Butcher betrayed him in season 3… So he's just an excellent antagonist, to switch sides and basically, you know, to be with the supes."
Besides Soldier Boy being on another revenge mission, it’s said that the series will also explore his relationship with Homelander. While SB kind of rejected HL during their last encounter, it looks like the tables will have turned now that HL actually controls the government and has more power than he’s ever had before.
"You know, what we realized was we really hadn't explored the father-son relationship much between Homelander and Soldier Boy,” said Kripke, “There's a lot of material there, how Soldier Boy feels about Homelander, how Homelander feels about his dad, and so we really wanted to dig into that relationship."
With Homelander basically fumbling the bag with his own son Ryan, there definitely is plenty of room for him to relate to his own father this time around. Knowing how Soldier Boy is just as much of a jerk as Homelander is, it’s possible that Homelander would be getting a taste of his own medicine—especially from another super being that isn’t afraid of him.
Fathers and Sons
With both Butcher and Homelander messing up their relationship with Ryan, it’s curious what his arc is going to be for the season. It’s been made clear that Ryan is afraid of Homelander, but Ryan didn’t exactly end the season in good terms with Butcher either.
With both dads out, it’s possible the show will find some kind of dynamic between Ryan and his grandfather Soldier Boy. Though Soldier Boy is still a toxic jerk, he doesn’t really have the same kind of neediness that drives Homelander, so it’s possible that he could give Ryan some better advice about being himself compared to Butcher and HL who have been trying to manipulate Ryan into doing what they want him to do.
Though the show had ended with Homelander practically running the country, it’s been made clear that he’s in way over his head and one wrong move could result in a disastrous regime for him. On the Butcher end of things, it does seem like Butcher has already died and Kessler has fully taken over. A lot of fans predict that the two would eventually kill each other, but for the sake of Ryan, maybe there could be an alternate ending that nobody has thought of yet.
The final season of The Boys is expected to premiere on Amazon Prime Video sometime in 2026.