“I’m really motivated to kill him,” Showrunner Eric Kripke reveals why Soldier Boy will return in season 5 of The Boys
El showrunner de The Boys, Eric Kripke Explains Why Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) Will Return in a Featured RoleThe Boys’ San Diego Comic-Con panel announced that Ackles would be promoted to a series regular for season five. This comes after Soldier Boy was absent for the entire fourth season until the mid-credits scene of the finale, when his biological son, Homelander, learned from President Calhoun where the survivor’s body was stored.
While speaking to GamesRadar, Kripke explained that it’s because of Soldier Boy’s relationship with Homelander (Antony Starr) and because of his unfinished business with Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) that he wanted the character to return in a major way for season 5. Butcher and Soldier Boy worked together in Season 3 to take down Homelander, only for Butcher to renege on their deal to protect Ryan (Cameron Crovetti).
“You know, we realized that we hadn’t explored much of the father-son relationship between Homelander and Soldier Boy. There’s a lot of material there, about how Soldier Boy feels about Homelander, how Homelander feels about his father, and so we really wanted to dig deeper into that relationship.”
“Soldier Boy is really motivated to kill Butcher after Butcher betrayed him in Season 3. So he’s just a great antagonist, to switch sides and basically, you know, be with the superheroes.”
Soldier Boy’s Motives Confirmed for Season 5
The last time Soldier Boy was conscious, he was fighting Homelander and Butcher. Despite having issues with both, Kripke’s comments confirm that Soldier Boy will focus on killing Butcher, which will no doubt delight Homelander. Soldier Boy will likely join Homelander’s superhero army and be happy to unleash his wrath on the world, though he may be surprised to discover that Butcher now has tentacles that can tear people apart, like he did to Victoria Neuman.
Even though Soldier Boy and Homelander will line up to kill Butcher, there’s still the matter of their complex relationship. They only discovered their relationship at the end of Season 3 and didn’t have much time to explore it before Soldier Boy proceeded to pick a fight with his son. Homelander will surely still crave his father’s approval and still want the superpowered father figure he never had, but it remains to be seen if Soldier Boy can stop seeing Homelander as pathetic and resenting him for becoming the face of Vought.
Despite being united in their mission to kill Butcher, there is still hope that Soldier Boy is the answer to defeating Homelander. He is capable of radiating energy blasts that can wipe out a super’s powers, as he did to Kimiko and Maeve in Season 3, and could possibly do the same to his son. Homelander losing his powers at the hands of his father and having to be a normal human might be even more satisfying than having him killed outright by Butcher in season 5 of The Boys.
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