In just a season (and some), Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy became one of The Boys’ most talked-about characters. The superpowered villain is back in season 5, and he brings back his regressive mindset, which erupts despite Jensen’s obvious charm. As The Boys’ final season premieres, Jensen talks to Hindustan Times about bringing the character to life, his place in the real world, and the mini ‘Supernatural’ reunion on the show’s sets.
The Supernatural reunion on The Boys
The Boys shares many actors with Supernatural, another iconic show created by Eric Kripke. Jim Beaver played President Singer for a couple of seasons before Jensen came in as Soldier Boy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played the senior Winchester on Supernatural, had a recurring role in The Boys S4. The final season finally brings on board the other two leads of the show – Jared Padalecki and Mischa Collins. Jensen says there was an attempt to bring some meta Supernatural humour with them (even getting their character names into this show), before the experiment was abandoned. “There was one take where we tried that out, and it was a complete disaster. So we were like, no, let’s not do that. Let’s just keep with what we got hired to do,” he says with a laugh.
On finding Soldier Boy ‘within’
Soldier Boy is a white supremacist who led the show’s fictitious ‘superhero team’ in the 50s before being frozen in ice for decades. Think Captain America, but evil! Jensen has a simple mantra to describe the character: “Hurt people hurt people!” He says Soldier Boy’s past, as never living up to his father’s expectations, has pushed him down a path of ‘not doing the right things’.
Having played the righteous Dean Winchester on Supernatural for close to two decades, Soldier Boy was a clear departure for the actor. Talking about how he found the character, he says, “He is obviously a troubled character. It’s (all about) finding a centre to that character, and trying to come at it from within, as opposed to from the exterior. You then see how he presents himself to the world, how he reacts with other characters.”
Soldier Boy’s fragile masculinity
“His moral compass is probably non-existent at this point. And then it’s his own compass, but again, he doesn’t feel like he’s a bad guy. He just feels like he’s doing what he thinks is right,” says Jensen.
The actor admits that Soldier Boy is a ‘layered character’ and one that has many real-world parallels, at least thematically. “Crazy people don’t go: ‘What’s the crazy thing to do?’ There aren’t many people walking around actively doing bad things,” he says, “Everyone’s trying to survive, and everyone has a set of tools that they’ve gone out over the years that they employ to survive.” For Soldier Boy, these tools are his superpowers, which amplify his toxicity.
Jensen finds that his character and Homelander, the show’s primary antagonist, are similar in that way. “Our characters are incredibly similar, thematically, and I think that’s one of the things that I’ve really enjoyed about the show. I do think there are so many different types of masculinity in the world at the moment that are either antiquated, outdated or just toxic. And it does get handed from generation to generation.”
All about The Boys and Vought Rising
Based on the best-selling graphic novel created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys has been developed by Eric Kripke. The final season premiered on April 8, with the finale slated for May 20. The shoe features an ensemble cast including Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, and Colby Minifie.
Even as Soldier Boy’s track on the show ends with the final season, the character will return in The Boys’ spinoff prequel, Vought Rising, where Jensen will take the centre stage.
