Soldier Boy wants everyone to know that winners don’t use drugs in a retro-style PSA released days ahead of The Boys returning with season 3. On June 3, the long-awaited third season will arrive, and with it will come the introduction of series newcomer Jensen Ackles in the role of Soldier Boy, a Captain America-style patriotic superhero. To promote the new season, showrunner Eric Kripke shared an ad from the Vought vault with Soldier Boy warning his young fans against the dangers of drug use.
“Hello, I’m Soldier Boy,” the Supe says in the clip. “Did you know drugs and drug-related crimes have become a nationwide problem? All across America, drugs are destroying people’s lives. But, you don’t have to be a superhero to fight back, because your superpower is just saying, ‘No.’ So, when someone offers you drugs, you tell them Soldier Boy said, ‘Taking drugs is not cool and anyone who does is a loser.’ Remember, real heroes don’t use drugs.”
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Soldier Boy had served as the world’s most famous superhero in the decades before Homelander became the leader of The Seven. He has been described as the “John Wayne of superheroes,” but while he had been a big fixture in the past, he has since been out of the spotlight. Homelander does not like to have his status as the world’s top superhero challenged so there may be a rift when Soldier Boy comes back onto the scene.
Season 3 Will Explain Soldier Boy’s History
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So, who is Soldier Boy? Showrunner Eric Kripke has previously teased that the new season will delve into the history of superheroes to further explain Soldier Boy’s past.
“Season 3 delves a lot more into the history of how we got here through this character of Soldier Boy,” Kripke told Vanity Fair. “We were able to dig into both the history of the country and also really look at toxic masculinity, and masculine roles, and what a shit-show that’s overall caused. This whole fu**king, independent Marlboro man thing.”
On casting Ackles, with whom he’d previously worked on with Supernatural, Kripke added, “We had written Soldier Boy long before I cast Jensen. The majority of the guys we were looking at for that part were actually quite older than Jensen. Because it’s a World War II hero. He happened to call me and we were just chatting and I’m like, ‘Well I’m prepping season 3 of the show, and I have this character Soldier Boy, and it was a real pain to cast, and I haven’t really found anyone. Hey, wait a minute, do you want to do it?’ I sent him the script, and he’s like, ‘Oh my God, I totally want to do this.’”
Season 3 of The Boys is scheduled to premiere on June 3, 2022, on Prime Video.