The Boys: Why We’re Excited for Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
After being the star of Supernatural for 15 years, Jensen Ackles is ready for a change. It was recently announced that Ackles would be joining the cast of Amazon’s The Boys in Season 3, which will likely debut in Fall 2021. For those who aren’t already fans, The Boys is a TV series based on Garth Ennis’ comic of the same name which explores the dark and corruptible side of superheroes, namely what happens when our beloved caped crusaders abuse their powers.
With original Supernatural creator and show-runner, Eric Kripke, at the helm, it comes as no surprise that he’s casted his protégé Jensen Ackles in the role of Soldier Boy. Ackles made the announcement in a recent video on Instagram:
Described as the original superhero, Soldier Boy’s story runs parallel to the squeaky clean Captain America of Marvel fame, gaining notoriety fighting Nazis during World War II and becoming a staple of American popular culture in the aftermath. Both superheroes are exceedingly patriotic however, unlike Captain America, Soldier Boy is a notorious coward. With Season 2 of The Boys set to premiere on September 4, here are some of the things we’re looking forward to as they begin principal photography for Soldier Boy in the upcoming year:
The Comedy Stylings of Jensen Ackles
Supernatural has always been a dark, gritty, and violent show. However, Jensen Ackles was able to bring levity to his role as Dean Winchester through his comedic performance. Whether it’s screaming bloody murder at the sight of a kitty cat, getting stoned on a sandwich, or barking at the mailman, Jensen Ackles certainly knows how to bring the funny. Because The Boys is a dark comedy and Soldier Boy is particularly naive, it’ll be really fun to see Jensen playing scared in his suit and tights.
The Cursing and Swearing
Because Supernatural made its home on the CW, it’s had to maintain a fairly squeaky clean image over the years (well, other than all the gore and murder). That means that in 15 seasons, we’ve never been blessed with our fair share of Dean Winchester’s dirty mouth. In fact, the worst we’ve heard just happens to be his infamous catchphrase: son of a bitch. In a promise by Eric Kripke himself, we’re looking forward to a lot more cursing and swearing from Soldier Boy in The Boys. It’ll be nice to hear Jensen run his mouth a little. Heck knows we’ve been waiting long enough.
The Costumes
Everyone knows Jensen Ackles looks mighty good in flannel. But unless you’re a real fan, you won’t know that he has a certain fetish for dressing up in superhero costumes and staging professional photoshoots on his Instagram for Halloween. Last year it was the Red Hood, which he voiced to perfection in the 2010 DC animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, and this year he showed us his take on the Bat himself. That, coupled with the abundance of fan art that shows Jensen photoshopped into the Captain America garb (rumour has it he auditioned for the role but lost out to Chris Evans), will make it all the more satisfying for Jensen (and all of us) to slip into his Soldier Boy spandex in The Boys.
The Gay
Don’t get it twisted: we hate queerbaiting as much as the next girl (I mean, we’ve suffered through Supernatural‘s sexual tension for 15 season, let’s be real). But that doesn’t mean our fanfiction brains don’t explode when we realize that the first introduction of Soldier Boy in the comics is him in bed with Homelander after an attempt to sleep his way into the Seven. Get ready for a ship explosion on Tumblr and AO3. Sadly, we’re skeptical about how much explicitly gay content (if any) Amazon will include in The Boys. Then again, Eric Kripke did hint that Jensen would get to play it a bit more “mature” in this series that he did on Supernatural. Sigh, we can dream.
What are you looking forward to in Jensen’s portrayal of Soldier Boy?
FAN/FIC Magazine 
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