Jensen Ackles contemplates Soldier Boy-Captain America showdown

The breakout character on The Boys is Homelander, a super-strong, super-fast, practically invincible superhero who is also a violent, psychopathic egomaniac. He’s clearly meant to be a dark parody of Superman, who isn’t the only comics icon the show takes aim at. In this most recent season, it’s introduced Soldier Boy, a super-soldier from yesteryear whose signature weapon is a shield. Sound familiar?

Soldier Boy is played by Jensen Ackles, who worked with The Boys showrunner Erik Kripke way back when on Supernatural. He auditioned with a scene that didn’t make the final cut of the new season, but sounds like it fits right in with everything else on The Boys. “I read [the scene] and I just remember there was a line where Soldier Boy said: ‘I was banging some Playboy in the grotto and Peter Fonda’s thumb was up my ass,'” he told Yahoo Entertainment. “I don’t know what this says about me, but right then I was like, ‘I gotta play this role!’ I was really excited about it.”

"I mean, the shield was a little cumbersome — I’m not gonna lie. I was like, how the hell am I gonna carry this thing around all season? But it was a lot of fun. There’s such a wealth of detail and color that these guys write into these characters."

It’s also gotta be fun playing a violent, depraved version of Captain America, one of the most upstanding and good-hearted of superheroes. That said, Ackles is pretty sure he knows who would beat him in a contest. “Chris and I should probably talk about doing some sort of face-off or crossover. No, he’s got magic powers! And his shield can return to him; my shield is just a blunt object. He wins.”

For what it’s worth, Ackles also thinks that Evans would win an “America’s ass” competition. “Evans is gonna win that one, too. He doesn’t have three kids, so he gets to work out!”

The Boys boss “would love” a cameo from Jared Padalecki

With Kripke and Ackles back on set together again for the first time since Supernatural, naturally the team sprinkled lots of little easter eggs into The Boys season 3. “When you think of the amount of people on this show on the creative team who come from Supernatural—me, [executive producer and director] Phil Sgriccia, Jensen, [composer] Christopher Lennertz, we sort of couldn’t help but drop some stuff in because that show was such a huge part of our lives,” Kripke told Variety. “We couldn’t resist just a few things here and there. Small things, but enough that the fans will see a little wink from us of what we’re doing.”

That said, when Jensen Ackles is in a show overseen by Erik Kripke, Supernatural fans are likely wondering one thing: might Ackles’ Supernatural costar Jared Padalecki show up? The pair played the embattled Winchester brothers for 15 seasons over on The CW, so seeing them together again in any capacity would be a trip.

“I would love a Jared cameo!” Kripke said. “He’s always welcome on the [The Boys]. Up to now, the guy is on a network show that has however many episodes — like, a lot more than eight… He’s been a busy man. And it’s been hard to even figure out any time that he’s free. But if he was free and found himself currently unemployed, I would put him on The Boys in a heartbeat.”

The Boys has already thrown us some curveballs a few episodes into its third season — no one expected Aya Cash’s Stormfront to show up again, for instance — so who knows what other surprises it has in store? New episodes drop on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays.

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