2022 may be all about the Multiverse of Madness, but there’s no substitute for the foul-mouthed, depraved superheroes of Prime Video’s The Boys. And as the trailer for Season 3 shows, the series is going to let up when it comes to extreme violence, language or scenes of Homelander’s creepy milk fetish.
But there are some big changes coming our way in Season 3, and that includes introducing some new characters and plot elements pulled straight from the pages of the comic book. Let’s break down what we learn in the new trailer.
Season 2 ended on a surprisingly happy note, with Hughie and the gang clearing their names, Homelander’s son Ryan being sent safely into hiding and the Seven suffering a rare defeat. The trailer shows us that Season 3 picks up roughly a year later. The Boys are still walking the straight and narrow path, even if Billy doesn’t seem too happy to be a law-abiding citizen again.
But even he seems to be handling this new status quo better than Homelander, who’s clearly going off the deep end after having lost both Madelyn Stillwell and Stormfront.
Unsurprisingly, this relative calm isn’t going to last. The trailer makes it clear something is about to go badly wrong, forcing Billy and his team to dive back into the fray and start getting their hands dirty again.
This could have something to do with Victoria Neuman, since we know from the Season 2 finale that she’s anything but the selfless political crusader she pretends to be. However, we only see a brief glimpse of Victoria in this footage.
Whatever sets the conflict in motion this time, the Boys have a new weapon to help level the playing field.
Up till now, probably the single biggest difference between the TV series and the original comic is that, in the latter, Hughie, Billy and the rest of the team have actual super-powers. They’ve all been injected with Compound V, giving them super-strength and other useful abilities. The TV versions have had to make do with their wits alone, but not anymore.
The trailer shows the Boys coming into possession of a mysterious new substance that can bestow superhuman powers for one day at a time. We assume this green-colored drug is derived from Compound V, or possibly even Homelander’s DNA, since we see Billy unleashing some heat vision of his own.
This drug comes courtesy of Katia Winters’ character Little Nina, who seems to have a vested interest in destroying Homelander and Vought entirely.
This bootleg Compound V will probably come in very handy as the feud between the Boys and the Seven heats up again. But just as in the comic, we see that there’s a huge risk in using the weapon of the enemy against them. The Boys risk becoming just as twisted and bloodthirsty as the people they’re fighting against. Even Ryan looks like he’ll continue to struggle with the powers he inherited from Homelander.
Basically, the moral of The Boys is that superhuman power corrupts superhumanly… or something like that.
The trailer shows off several new characters making their debuts in Season 3, including Supernatural star Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy. First mentioned in Season 2, Soldier Boy is the closest thing the Boys universe has to Captain America. He’s a shield-wielding, patriotic super-soldier who may or may not have fought in World War II. But, since this is The Boys, he’s way more of a jerk.
Soldier Boy is the leader of a team called Payback in the comics. And while most of those characters are being introduced in Season 3, Soldier Boy himself looks to be joining the ever-shifting ranks of The Seven. The trailer suggests we’ll learn a lot about his sordid past, and there are even hints he may not exactly be an enemy to Billy and his team.
Some shots seem to hint that Soldier Boy’s powers may extend far beyond mere super-strength. At one point we see an apartment building in the aftermath of a massive explosion, and the trailer ends with a scene of Soldier Boy firing a massive energy blast out of his chest, which is definitely not one of his powers in the comics. Has he been a guinea pig for Vought’s horrific human experiments?
Season 3 is also introducing Laurie Holden’s Crimson Countess, who’s more or less an analogue to Scarlet Witch. In the comics, Crimson Countess is also a member of Payback. And just like Wanda Maximoff, she’s in a love affair with an android.
The trailer also shows a quick glimpse of what appears to be Sean Patrick Flannery’s Gunpowder, who specializes in firearms and deadly explosives. And finally, we see a shot of the Ant-Man-esque superhero Swatto, played by Joel Labelle.
And that’s all you need to know about the new trailer for The Boys. For more on this rapidly growing franchise, see how The Boys: Diabolical connects to season 3, and more of the biggest new TV shows coming in 2022.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...
But there are some big changes coming our way in Season 3, and that includes introducing some new characters and plot elements pulled straight from the pages of the comic book. Let’s break down what we learn in the new trailer.
The Season 3 Status Quo
Season 2 ended on a surprisingly happy note, with Hughie and the gang clearing their names, Homelander’s son Ryan being sent safely into hiding and the Seven suffering a rare defeat. The trailer shows us that Season 3 picks up roughly a year later. The Boys are still walking the straight and narrow path, even if Billy doesn’t seem too happy to be a law-abiding citizen again.
But even he seems to be handling this new status quo better than Homelander, who’s clearly going off the deep end after having lost both Madelyn Stillwell and Stormfront.
Unsurprisingly, this relative calm isn’t going to last. The trailer makes it clear something is about to go badly wrong, forcing Billy and his team to dive back into the fray and start getting their hands dirty again.
This could have something to do with Victoria Neuman, since we know from the Season 2 finale that she’s anything but the selfless political crusader she pretends to be. However, we only see a brief glimpse of Victoria in this footage.
Whatever sets the conflict in motion this time, the Boys have a new weapon to help level the playing field.
The Boys Get Powers
Up till now, probably the single biggest difference between the TV series and the original comic is that, in the latter, Hughie, Billy and the rest of the team have actual super-powers. They’ve all been injected with Compound V, giving them super-strength and other useful abilities. The TV versions have had to make do with their wits alone, but not anymore.
The trailer shows the Boys coming into possession of a mysterious new substance that can bestow superhuman powers for one day at a time. We assume this green-colored drug is derived from Compound V, or possibly even Homelander’s DNA, since we see Billy unleashing some heat vision of his own.
This drug comes courtesy of Katia Winters’ character Little Nina, who seems to have a vested interest in destroying Homelander and Vought entirely.
This bootleg Compound V will probably come in very handy as the feud between the Boys and the Seven heats up again. But just as in the comic, we see that there’s a huge risk in using the weapon of the enemy against them. The Boys risk becoming just as twisted and bloodthirsty as the people they’re fighting against. Even Ryan looks like he’ll continue to struggle with the powers he inherited from Homelander.
Basically, the moral of The Boys is that superhuman power corrupts superhumanly… or something like that.
Meet Soldier Boy
The trailer shows off several new characters making their debuts in Season 3, including Supernatural star Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy. First mentioned in Season 2, Soldier Boy is the closest thing the Boys universe has to Captain America. He’s a shield-wielding, patriotic super-soldier who may or may not have fought in World War II. But, since this is The Boys, he’s way more of a jerk.
Soldier Boy is the leader of a team called Payback in the comics. And while most of those characters are being introduced in Season 3, Soldier Boy himself looks to be joining the ever-shifting ranks of The Seven. The trailer suggests we’ll learn a lot about his sordid past, and there are even hints he may not exactly be an enemy to Billy and his team.
Some shots seem to hint that Soldier Boy’s powers may extend far beyond mere super-strength. At one point we see an apartment building in the aftermath of a massive explosion, and the trailer ends with a scene of Soldier Boy firing a massive energy blast out of his chest, which is definitely not one of his powers in the comics. Has he been a guinea pig for Vought’s horrific human experiments?
Season 3 is also introducing Laurie Holden’s Crimson Countess, who’s more or less an analogue to Scarlet Witch. In the comics, Crimson Countess is also a member of Payback. And just like Wanda Maximoff, she’s in a love affair with an android.
The trailer also shows a quick glimpse of what appears to be Sean Patrick Flannery’s Gunpowder, who specializes in firearms and deadly explosives. And finally, we see a shot of the Ant-Man-esque superhero Swatto, played by Joel Labelle.
And that’s all you need to know about the new trailer for The Boys. For more on this rapidly growing franchise, see how The Boys: Diabolical connects to season 3, and more of the biggest new TV shows coming in 2022.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...