Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV | Tagged: Jensen Ackles, the boys

The Boys: Jensen Ackles on What Excites Him About "Vought Rising"

Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, Countdown) shares what's exciting him the most about returning as Soldier Boy for prequel "Vought Rising."

With the prequel series expected to start production in August, our last two updates on Showrunner Paul Grellong and Prime Video's Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy) and Aya Cash (Clara Vought/Stormfront)-starring 50's-set spinoff The Boys: Vought Rising have been really promising. First, news hit that Will Hochman (Blue Bloods) and Elizabeth Posey (Euphoria) had joined the cast, though their respective roles are being kept under wraps. In addition, it was reported that Mason Dye (Stranger Things) – who's playing Bombsight during the fifth and final season of Showrunner Eric Kripke's The Boys – could reprise the role for the prequel series (though nothing has been confirmed), which would see The Boys EP Paul Grellong serving as executive producer and showrunner. Shortly after, Kripke offered an update on where things stood with The Boys universe, sharing that the writers' room was "writing brilliant scripts" and "new super suits" were "being designed" (adding at the end, "It's all happening").

Speaking with Collider for an extended interview regarding his career in support of his new Prime Video series Countdown, Ackles shared that he is excited to examine how Soldier Boy was in his own time and not time-displaced as we've seen him for most of The Boys. "I'm excited to explore what that world looks like and feels like and sounds like, and see how those characters come to life in that setting," Ackles shared. "I've been playing Soldier Boy in modern day, but I've been playing him like he's kind of an old guy. He's a grandpa from back in the day, so it'll be interesting to now play him with contemporaries." Of course, just because it's a 50s-set prequel doesn't mean it's going to lack in that The Boys "uniqueness" when it comes to storytelling: "It may be like an odd explanation of how we've ended up where we are."

The Boys/Vought Rising: About Soldier Boy's Return…

Speaking with Gamesradar+, Kripke shared one of the reasons why Soldier Boy was brought back – and how his allegiances will be quite different during the final season (sorry, Karl Urban's Billy Butcher). "You know, what we realized was we really hadn't explored the father-son relationship much between Homelander and Soldier Boy. There's a lot of material there: how Soldier Boy feels about Homelander, how Homelander feels about his dad, and so we really wanted to dig into that relationship," Kripke explained.

The creative team also doesn't lose sight of just how popular both Ackles and the character are—as was evident by the crowd's reaction to him coming out onto the stage for the panel. Kripke joked, "We were just really excited to bring him out. And, you know, Jensen, despite his tragic ugliness, you know, we thought we should give him a shot." What's not a joke is who Soldier Boy has his sights set on when he does wake up from his deep freeze. "Soldier Boy is really driven to kill Butcher after Butcher betrayed him in season 3. So he's just an excellent antagonist, to switch sides and basically, you know, to be with the supes," Kripke added.

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