The release date of the first three episodes of Amazon Prime Video’s satirical superhero series The Boys season 3 has been announced. But what will the next chapter and new season bring? Which cast is expected to return? And, more importantly, when and where can I watch it?
What We Expect From The Boys Season 3
The long wait is finally over: Amazon Studios has finally confirmed the release date for The Boys season 3, which will be arriving on Prime Video this summer. The last season of the ultraviolet and irreverent show was released almost two years ago, in October 2020. A series of complications and a global pandemic later, fans of the show will finally get to see Butcher and the Boys duking it out against corrupt superheroes once again.
Season 2 marked several points of no return for the series. Even if you’ve read the Garth Ennis comic book series before, the amount of changes the producers of The Boys show did to the source material is more than enough to keep you guessing what could come next for Hughie and the Boys.
It seems like what we’ll see in The Boys season 3 could be some of the darkest and nastiest stuff the series has dealt with so far, as we approach the festival of debauchery that is Herogasm.
Let’s take a look at what we can expect from the upcoming season, and what are some of the events that have led the Boys to where they’re now.
Watch The Boys Season 3 First Look Trailer
Life After Stormfront
In the comics and graphic novels, Stormfront could be considered a minor character: the leader of the superhero team called Payback, he was the Nazis version of Homelander. The show not only gender-swapped Homefront: it also turned her into a more contemporary version of the character.
Though both versions were created in the forties, show Stormfront was more tech-savvy and relied less on brute force. This made her a more formidable opponent than her comic book counterpart, which was defeated in just a few issues.
The damage Stormfront caused to the Supe world could have a lasting impact in The Boys season 3. It has already been confirmed that part of the season’s plot will be dealing with Homelander’s forced PR tour after dating a Nazi. Let’s not forget that the Boys’ version of Superman is already in a bit of a pickle after his popularity took a nosedive in season 2, so we’ll see how he tries to win back the love of the public in the upcoming season – not that he cares all that much about what people think, to be honest.
We’ll probably hear a bit about Stormfront’s background in The Boys season 3 – after all, she was one of the best characters of the show so far. That said, the Vought company would surely be more than pleased to turn the page on the whole affair, which could mean that Stormfront might not even play a central role this season.
Daddy Issues
The Boys’ second season also gave us another great character in the form of Ryan, Billy Butcher’s superpowered stepson. Actually, Butcher’s entire season 2 arc was fantastic: it gave his character an extra layer of depth and even brought him one step closer to turning him into a bona fide villain at some points.
Even though some parts of season 2 felt a bit shallower than they were in the show’s first season – particularly when the satire lacked most of its nuance – the story of Butcher’s family might have been the star of the second season by far.
Becca and Ryan (Butcher’s wife and stepson) make a surprising comeback when it is revealed that they were forced to live in complete isolation to protect them from the eyes of the public. Considering Billy’s intense hatred for every superhero, the moment he learns that his stepson is one of them is unbearable to him.
The suffering endured by Ryan seeing his mother die by his own hand and how Butcher will rise a superpowered stepson might play a big part in The Boys season 3. This will be entirely new territory for comic book readers, too, as Ryan didn’t appear in the Garth Ennis comics.
New (Old) Faces
A character that was in the comics and that is also set to debut in the Amazon Prime Video show is Soldier Boy. In the comics, Soldier Boy was a less than heroic character who was the leader of Stormfront’s superhero team, Payback.
Since the show has proved time and time again that it is not going to be an exact adaptation of the comics, I think it would be safe to reveal how the character was portrayed in the comics, and how different he could be in The Boys season 3.
First off, it seems like the show goes all out on the idea that Soldier Boy is this universe’s version of Captain America. In the comics, the character was a coward who only dreamed of joining the Seven, while it seems like he might be much more imposing in the show.
It has already been revealed that the show’s Soldier Boy is nearly immortal – much like Stormfront – as he has been active since World War II. In the comics, however, there have been two previous Soldier Boys, which is a title that’s passed down as the previous Supes met their untimely demises.
Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles (who we’ve already seen in full costume) is set to portray Soldier Boy in The Boys season 3, so be on the lookout for more info as we learn more about the role his character will play in the upcoming season.
Another superhuman who will be introduced to the show in its third season is the Crimson Countess, played by The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden.
Yet another hero from Payback, the Countess is an obvious nod to Marvel’s Scarlett Witch – which is fitting, considering that audiences are now more familiar with the character thanks to last year’s WandaVision. It’s unclear how she’ll fit into season 3’s narrative, but it seems like Payback as a whole might be a big part of the show this time around.
New Seven in The Boys Season 3
During the last season, we saw that Starlight was decided to keep working undercover for Vought – a dangerous thing to do, especially with Homelander knowing almost every detail of her life.
Part of her duties as a member of the most popular superhero team in the world of The Boys is to find new members for the Seven. After all, the team took a huge blow during season 2, which is now down to five Supes.
Perhaps Soldier Boy and the Crimson Countess will be the two new faces to join the Seven, seeing as the show has been adding heroes from Payback to the main team. One thing is for sure, though: there’s very little chance of The Deep rejoining the team any time soon.
The Deep’s experiences with the Church of the Collective were a big part of season 2 – mostly as comic relief. In the comics, The Deep is one of the few moral characters among the ranks of the Seven, so seeing him being treated as a clown in the show was a real surprise for comic book fans.
Whatever’s the case, it seems like Homelander and the Seven might not be the only villains the Boys will have to face in the upcoming season. Evildoers now seem to prefer wearing suits rather than flashy costumes, as we now have Stan Edgar and Victoria Neuman joining the show.
“There are two words that Eric has said to me about season three,” Antony Starr (Homelander) told Collider. “His description for Homelander Season three was, ‘Two words, homicidal maniac.’ That’s all I know.”
Friends or Foes
Season 2 gave us two great new characters that still have a lot of interesting narrative potential for The Boys season 3. First off, we have Vought’s CEO Stan Edgar, played by none other than Giancarlo Esposito, who seems to be sticking to his Gus Fring persona for this character.
A cold and calculating character, Edgar is one of the select few individuals who’s been able to stand face to face with Homelander. As the one responsible for creating Compound V – the chemical that gives Supes their powers – it’s clear that he has every intention of expanding Vought’s political and military influence.
As enigmatic as he is, there’s another character whose intentions could be even more sinister than Edgar’s. Congresswoman Victoria Neuman spent most of last season working publicly as an anti-Vought politician while blowing off heads with her superpowers when no one was looking.
By the end of season 2, Hughie now works for her in the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, so expect to hear much more from her in The Boys season 3. Whether she’s a true ally of the Boys or just a very skilled deceiver remains to be seen – after all, she killed Susan Raynor, who was the previous leader of the Boys and an invaluable asset to the team, not to mention a close friend of Butcher.
Herogasm
We saved the best for last. As fans of the comic know, this season will bring the Herogasm plot to the Amazon live-action show, and it just might become the series most spicy, raunchiest display yet, if the comics are anything to go by.
Herogasm is basically a Vought-funded massive orgy where every Supe can indulge in their most deranged desires. In the comics, the event was a massive display of debauchery that deserved its own spin-off event: appropriate, seeing as Vought tells the people that the heroes are actually busy fighting a massive interplanetary threat to justify their absence.
It has been confirmed that Herogasm will happen in Amazon’s The Boys season 3, with a single episode dedicated to the whole affair. In the comics, the events of Herogasm shock Hughie to the core, and are the perfect catalyst to fuel his disdain for most Supes. They all fly to a remote island for a days-long orgy and drug-fueled party.
Considering the show has never shied away from the nastiest bits of the comic’s cynical plot, we can already tell that “Herogasm” will probably be remembered as a massive turning point for the series.
The Boys Is the Perfect Response to the Superhero Fatigue Question
Since late 2016, many pundits have predicted that superhero fatigue will kick in. With the abundance of superhero-related TV shows and movies being released, it’s inevitable that the audiences will tire of them, right? Well, the highest-grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame, begs to differ, while Amazon Prime’s The Boys proves to be a cheeky response to this tedious question.
Based on the hit comic book series created by writer Garth Ennis and illustrator Darick Robertson, The Boys isn’t your typical “superhero” show. In fact, the humans are the real heroes here, as the capes have abused their powers and become untouchable corporate darlings. It’s a new world where the celebrity culture consumes the superheroes and allows them to get away with things they should’ve never been allowed to do in the first place.
It’s a perfect satire to everything happening at the moment, as these superhero properties become multibillion-dollar franchises that are controlled by the biggest studios in Hollywood. Whether we want to admit it or not, they’re part of the “Machine” and the “Man” is calling the shots over what does and doesn’t make it down the production line.
These actors who portray these characters are adored, stalked and become legends as the audience laps up their every word. They’re the closest things to living gods, as most people fail to differentiate the actor from the part. How frighteningly similar is it to what’s depicted on the Amazon Prime show?
Interestingly, The Boys comic book series was released in 2006 before the whole superhero movie and TV boom. It was Ennis’s reaction to the state of modern comics as he felt it had become consumed with capes.
“I find most superhero stories completely meaningless. Which is not to say I don’t think there’s potential for the genre—Alan Moore and Warren Ellis have both done interesting work with the notion of what it might be like to be and think beyond human, see Miracleman, Watchmen and Supergods,” Ennis told SciFiNow. “But so long as the industry is geared towards fulfilling audience demand, i.e. for the same brightly coloured characters doing the same thing forever—you’re never going to see any real growth. The stories can’t end, so they’ll never mean anything.”
Ennis isn’t wrong. Too often, creator-owned stories fall to the wayside to make room for the tried-and-tested Batman and Spider-Man tales. It’s disappointing, really, as original storytelling isn’t receiving the equal attention and backing as regurgitations of the same heroes battling the same villains.
At the same time, it’s unlikely that paragons of popular culture will be put on the backburner in favour of something new—that’s not how business works and it’d be a disservice to these characters. There has to be a happy medium somewhere, though.
Perhaps this is where something like The Boys TV series might open people’s eyes to the fact that comic books are more than just superheroes. The Walking Dead is living proof that there are many lucrative properties in the comics industry waiting to be picked up by studios and networks.
With superhero fatigue unlikely to happen anytime soon, there’s nothing to lose here. There’s a whole world of comic book stories waiting to be adapted; all they need is the backing of the industry.
When discussing season 3 of The Boys, showrunner Eric Kripke revealed some of his ideas when talking “yet another” superhero show and how the series differs:
When I was working with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to create the show in the beginning, one of the things we quickly landed at was, everyone will expect us to be shocking and outrageous and gory. So, we said the most surprising and subversive thing we could do is have an incredible amount of emotion and heart and hook people into the characters. That’s the one thing that people weren’t expecting on this show. Part of it was just the nature of, what can we do to really surprise them?
The Boys Season 3 Cast
Season three stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, and newcomer to the series Supernatural star Jensen Ackles.
The Boys Season 3 Characters and Who They Are Based On
Drummer Boy (Supersonic)
Season 3 of The Boys will reintroduce a character that was only briefly mentioned in the show. As part of Vought’s “Young Americans” team, Drummer Boy was Starlight’s previous boyfriend and team partner. After cheating on her and breaking his chastity vows, it seems like Drummer Boy went through rehab to reemerge as Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva).
In the comics, Drummer Boy was partially based on Bucky Barnes, with some nods towards Robin’s design. It seems like the show is going for a more generic “sidekick” look for him.
Gunpowder
A gun-themed superhero, Gunpowder (Sean Patrick Flanery) is a member of the Teenage Kix team. Though the character appeared briefly in a news segment in The Boys season 1, he’s ready to make his debut as a proper character this season. Part of the process of turning him into a fully-fledged character involved doing a recast, with Sean Patrick Flannery playing the part this season.
Gunpowder bears a strong resemblance to Judge Dredd in the comics – which makes sense, given his militaristic nature. In the show, it seems like Gunpowder’s helmet draws some inspiration from Magneto, although some similarities to Dredd remain all over his design.
Blue Hawk
Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler) is one of the only new Supes that’s being introduced in season 3 that has no comic book counterpart. An entirely new character made up for the series, Blue Hawk seems to be a patriotic-themed superhero that would rival even Homelander’s nationalism.
Though his theme and design could have been influenced by Captain America, his jacket bears a strong resemblance to U.S. Agent’s suit.
Moonshadow
Another character created only for the show, Moonshadow is a Supe that operates out of San Diego and could be one of the superheroes being considered to replace Stormfront in the Seven. Not much is known about her character at the moment, only that she seems to be a genuinely good person that might have a dispute with the rest of the members of the Seven, much like Starlight before her.
Although we haven’t seen much of her design, the blue spandex costume that she wore during her interview on Seven on 7 seems to be at least partially inspired by the suits worn by the Fantastic Four in the 2005 film and the X-Men in both trilogies.
Crimson Countess
Though she was a minor character in the comics and met a gruesome end in the hands of Billy Butcher, the Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) is set to appear in The Boys season 3 in a presumably expanded role. Played by Laurie Holden of The Walking Dead fame, the Countess is one of Vought’s leading female superheroes and a member of the superhero team, Payback.
Her energy-based powers and crimson colour palette clearly relate to Marvel’s Scarlet Witch. Even her cowl looks similar to Scarlet Witch’s tiara in the comics, though her live-action design goes for a more traditional superhero mask. Still, the suit retains the Scarlet Witch inspiration, as evidenced by the crimson cape and even an “X” on her chest – probably a nod to the X-Men.
Soldier Boy
The character that’s set to have the greatest impact on season 3 of The Boys is Soldier Boy, played by Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles. A hero during World War II, Soldier Boy has been revered for generations as one of Vought’s grandest superheroes. He could give Homelander a run for his money this season, especially if he turns out to be on Stan Edgar’s good graces.
Needless to say, everything about Soldier Boy has been based on Captain America. Even the design of his golden era shield and the iconic star on his chest is present in Soldier Boy’s design; the only difference being Soldier Boy’s green colour scheme compared to Captain America’s red, white and blue.
The returning cast will include Karl Urban (Billy Butcher), Jack Quaid (Hughie Campbell), Tomer Kapon (Frenchie) Erin Moriarty (Starlight), Antony Starr (Homelander), Chace Crawford (The Deep), Dominique McElligott (Queen Maeve), Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk), Jessie T Usher (A-Train), Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko) and Giancarlo Esposito (Stan Edgar) among others. Frances Turner, Kristin Booth and Jack Doolan join Season 3 as recurring. Katia Winter will play a Russian mob boss, Little Nina.
Vought News Series Fills In Story Gaps Ahead of Season 3
Amazon’s VNN digital series brings viewers news segments from the Vought News Network. Actor Matthew Edison stars in the “Seven on 7” segments as anchor Cameron Coleman, who will also be showing up in the upcoming season.
Episodes of VNN will come out on the 7th of every month and drop tidbits about the group of vigilantes and superheroes and their journey in the third season of The Boys.
Watch The First Official Trailer
In the first official trailer (after many teasers), Butcher has Supe powers, we see glimpses of Homelander’s press tour after the events of season 2, we see the introduction of Soldier Boy, and poor Hughie is still going through it. Expect an extraordinary amount of blood and guts.
Watch The Boys Season 3 trailer below.
