Released back in 2019, Amazon Studios’ The Boys has become one of the most-watched shows in recent years. After leaving behind some of the top Netflix shows in approval ratings and viewership numbers, The Boys has absolutely dominated the superhero genre with its subversive, mature, and extremely graphic nature.
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The second season of The Boys continued its streak of gruesome violence for which the show is known for. The show’s fascination with exploding human beings was very much intact from the very first episode of the first season. After Robin and Translucent, now the second season upped the ante with exploding heads in a courtroom, which is arguably one of the most violent scenes ever televised.
Ahead of its third season, The Boys has confirmed that Supernatural star Jensen Ackles would be joining the cast as Soldier Boy. In the comics, Soldier Boy is a mantle that has been existing since the Second World War. Created as a parody of Marvel’s Captain America, the current Soldier Boy is a pretty decent superhero, by The Boys standard. Extremely gullible and a coward at times, Soldier Boy is a member of the superhero team named Payback, which is also the title of the first episode of the upcoming third season.
Related: The Boys Season 3: Superheroes We Want To See Next
As the third season of The Boys will soon start filming, showrunner Eric Kripke has revealed that he has decided to skip one controversial scene involving Homelander and Soldier Boy. In the show, Homelander has been responsible for many heinous acts, going as far as to become much more terrifying than his comic-book counterpart, courtesy of Antony Starr’s sheer brilliance. However, this one scene from the comics won’t be re-created for the show, and for the best reasons.
In the comics, Homelander tricks Soldier Boy into having sex with him for a seat at the Seven. While the gullible Soldier Boy thinks that it was a part of the audition, for Homelander it was just another act of hedonism. Though the show has never shied away from acts of sexual violence, Eric Kripke does have a solid reason for skipping this particular scene.
In the show, Homelander is neutered down a bit in the second season finale. As his position as the head of the Seven is now threatened, courtesy of Queen Maeve and Starlight, Homelander has to take calculated risks for now. Despite being a homicidal psychopath, the show’s version of Homelander did not take part in the disgusting sexual assault on Starlight, unlike the comic-book version.
Moreover, the context of the show has made Homelander an idealized version of Conservative Americans, which effectively throws away any possibility of Homelander indulging in sexual activities with Soldier Boy. In the show, Homelander has also shown his disgust towards queer sexuality when he learned about Queen Maeve’s bisexuality. While some might argue that Homelander did engage in sexual activity with Doppelganger in the second season, it happened when the D-lister disguised himelf as Madelyn Stillwell or Homelander. According to Doppelganger, it’s not gay if you do it with yourself.
Showrunner Eric Kripke has also revealed that Jensen Ackle’s Soldier Boy will also be quite different from his comic book counterpart. Instead of being a squeaky clean and gullible ‘superhero’, the show’s version is going to join the list of despicable supes who only deserve to be hunted down. The surprising twist at the end of the second season will only re-inforce the themes of superhero militization in the diabolical and twisted world of The Boys, following the addition of a dangerously patriotic Soldier Boy. Like they said, ‘Never meet your heroes’.
