The third season of The Boys has come and gone, and it brought with it one of the show’s most stand-out guest performances. I’m referring of course to Soldier Boy, played by Supernatural veteran Jensen Ackles.
Ackles and The Boys creator Eric Kripke also worked together on that other show, which ran for an astounding 15 seasons on The CW. The Boys season 3 marked a chance for them to combine forces yet again, and the results are undeniable. It also opens the door to compare Ackles’ two characters, which he’s happy to do.
SPOILERS for season 3 of The Boys beyond.
Who has worse daddy issues: Soldier Boy or Dean Winchester?
We found out quite a lot about Soldier Boy during the third season of The Boys, including that he has some serious daddy issues. Soldier Boy’s father was verbally abusive to the point where he willingly signed up as a test subject and became the world’s first Supe just to prove to his father that he was worth something. Soldier Boy passed that toxicity on to his own son Homelander (Anthony Starr) by rejecting him in the season finale for being too weak…and then he tried to murder him. It was a mess.
This isn’t Ackles’ first time playing a character with a complicated relationship with his father. In Supernatural, Dean and his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) were trained by their dad John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). John trains his two boys to fight monsters from a young age, and I think we can all imagine what that kind of upbringing might do to a kid. So who has the worse daddy issues: Soldier Boy or Dean Winchester?
“Oh, definitely Soldier Boy. He definitely had the worst father and has more deep-rooted issues because of it,” Ackles told Variety. “With Dean, I don’t think Dean was ever looking, necessarily, for his father’s approval in the way Soldier Boy was. He just idolized his father in a way that was unique, given their circumstances, given the fact that they lived in a world that was much, much different than a relationship would be. Also dealing with the fact that his dad was motivated by revenge and he was John Winchester’s mini-me, essentially. He was his little soldier. I think it was less about his approval, and more, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do because it’s what my father taught me to do.’”
In short, Dean put his father on a pedestal. “Now, certainly, you could pick at that pedestal all day long. But I think John Winchester did truly love his sons and what he did, you could certainly argue that it was the wrong way of going about it, but it was all rooted in love. He felt the way he did, and set off on the journey that he set off on because of the love of his wife and his family. It’s the classic situation of doing the right thing the wrong way. And I think John was probably much more guilty of that than Soldier Boy’s father, who was just doing the wrong thing the wrong way. He was just wrong across the board. Nothing will ever be good enough, nothing will ever impress his father.”
Reuniting with Supernatural actor Jim Beaver on The Boys
Since Kripke and Ackles worked together on Supernatural years before they joined forces for The Boys season 3, there were plenty of easter eggs referencing their previous show. A fun one is that the presidential candidate Robert Singer is played by actor Jim Beaver; Beaver also played the Winchester boys’ surrogate father Bob Singer on Supernatural. Despite that, Ackles and Beaver didn’t get to spend a lot of time together on The Boys set.
“There was a scene where Homelander is giving a speech at a Robert Singer rally and he envisions Soldier Boy walking in the crowd,” Ackles recalled. “That was the only time I was even on set when Jim was on set. And that in itself was really bizarre to be sitting next to somebody who I’ve been working with for years and years and with whom I have, not just a wonderful working relationship, but personal relationship, as well, and sitting on a completely different set playing completely different characters.”
There were plenty of other ways The Boys winked at Supernatural fans, but one of Ackles’ personal favorites was that Soldier Boy shared Dean Winchester’s horrible eating habits and love of fast food. “It was funny, the first scene that we really get to hear Soldier Boy, he’s eating fast food. Of course he is,” Ackles said, laughing.
The Boys season 3 is out now on Prime Video. The Jensen Ackles-produced Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters is due out on the CW on October 11.
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