Jensen Ackles has landed his first post-‘Supernatural’ gig. He will portray Soldier Boy on Season 3 of ‘The Boys’, Amazon Prime Video’s darkly hilarious superhero spoof. Amazon announced that the series had been renewed for a third season during the show’s SDCC@Home virtual panel. The second season premiers on September 4.
Ackles made the announcement via a video on Instagram:
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‘The Boys’ is based on the comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and was developed for television by ‘Supernatural’ creator Eric Kripke. In a statement, Kripke announced:
“When I was a child, I had a crazy, impossible dream — to provide Jensen Ackles with gainful employmen. I’m happy to say that dream has come true. Jensen is an amazing actor, an even better person, smells like warm chocolate chip cookies, and I consider him a brother. As Soldier Boy, the very first superhero, he’ll bring so much humor, pathos, and danger to the role. I can’t wait to be on set with him again, and bring a bit of ‘Supernatural’ to ‘The Boys.’”
Soldier Boy is ‘The Boys” pastiche of Captain America. It’s unclear how he will be depicted on the series. In the comic, there were two Soldier Boys, one during WWII, whose stupidity and lack of experience got his team the Avenging Squad (a.k.a. Marvel’s Invaders) and a battalion of regular soldiers killed. A later version was the leader of Payback (the Avengers) who has sex with one of The Seven in hopes of being asked to join that team.
Ackles may not be the only ‘Supernatural’ alum to appear in ‘The Boys’ S3, as Kripke and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have teased online that Kripke will write a special role for him, schedule permitting. Morgan portrayed John Winchester, the father of Ackles’ Dean, and his younger brother Sam (Jared Padalecki).
This isn’t the only TV “family affair” happening on ‘The Boys’. Prior to this, he created NBC’s time-travel adventure ‘Timeless’, and Malcolm Barrett, who played Rufus Carlin on that show, appeared in S1 of ‘The Boys’ as Vought PR guy Seth Reed, whose penis was frozen off during sex with an ice-powered Supe named Ice Queen.
Two more ‘Timeless’ vets, Goran Višnjić and Claudia Doumit, will appear in S2. Višnjić will play Alistair Adana, “the charismatic and shadowy leader of a mysterious church,” while Doumit plays Victoria Neuman, “a young wunderkind congresswoman.”
Another character who, in the comics, was a member of Payback, Stormfront, will be introduced during ‘The Boys’ S2. The comic version is male and is based on Thor, with elements of Shazam. The TV interpretation, played by Aya Cash, is female. It remains to be seen how she differs in other ways.
The coronavirus interrupted the filming of ‘Supernatural’s 15th and final season. There are two more episodes left to film, plus five already completed but unaired, but it is hoped that they will finally get back into production and arrive later this year. (UPDATE: The CW has scheduled the first new episode of ‘Supernatural’ to air on Thursday, October 8 at 8 pm EST. Production on the last two episodes is set to resume tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18. The series finale will air on Thursday, November 19 at 9 pm, preceded by a retrospective special, ‘Supernatural: The Long Road Home’.)
Check back for news about ‘The Boys’ and ‘Supernatural’ as it arrives.
