Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins Join The Boys for a Supernatural Reunion
Soldier Boy is getting some reinforcements. Jensen Ackles plays the character, who is a dark version of Captain America, on The Boys, the Amazon superhero satire based on the (superior) comic book written by Garth Ennis. Soldier Boy was one of the antagonists in season 3, a powerful superhero who had been imprisoned in a Russian facility since the 80s and was rescued by Billy Butcher to kill the show’s overarching villain, Homelander. It didn’t work out that way since we’re about to enter season 5 next year, but season 3 ended with Soldier Boy taken into custody after exploding in midair while trying to kill Butcher, Homelander, and a bunch of other people. Season 4 confirmed that he’s being held in suspended animation by the government. As season 5 is the end of the road for The Boys, fan-favorite Soldier Boy is due to return, and in a bit of stunt casting, the show has signed Jensen Ackles’ former Supernatural co-stars, Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins, to join him for what showrunner Erik Kripke is selling as a Supernatural reunion, as he’s a fan of the long-running show. There’s no word on who Padalecki and Collins are playing on The Boys. Supernatural starred Ackles and Padalecki as a pair of brothers who fought all manner of otherworldly creatures; Collins played an angel who helped them. Other Supernatural actors have appeared on The Boys: Jim Beaver has had a recurring role as rising politician “Dakota Bob” Singer, and during season 5, Jeffrey Dean Morgan played Joe Kessler, an old CIA buddy of Butcher’s, while Rob Benedict portrayed Splinter, an evil supe. The final season of The Boys will air on Amazon Prime Video in 2026.
I never watched Supernatural, so this isn’t as exciting for me as it is for the show’s many fans. I have no idea who Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins will be playing – the show has veered so far from the comics at this point that it could be anyone. The safe bet is that they’ll be part of Soldier Boy’s storyline, particularly Padalecki, so that the Supernatural alums can share the screen, although Soldier Boy wasn’t even around when Jeffrey Dean Morgan appeared, and I doubt he’ll be coming back. And that’s fine; I don’t mind the fan service. It’s not like The Boys has a whole lot of integrity it’s holding onto anymore; that series has gone so far off the rails with its political allegories (which are thinner than tissue paper) and over-the-top gore and sex for shock value more than anything else. It’s hard to blame the show for the latter, as Garth Ennis does similar things in his comics, but he’s much better at it than Kripke and the show’s writers. As for the former, well, they’re now just outright mentioning January 6 as the day an assuredly violent attack on a newly elected President will occur, so they’ve waved bye-bye to the notion of subtext a long time ago and have begun shoving newspaper headlines in your face while shouting, “GET IT!?” To be fair, the show is still capable of delivering some good episodes, and those are the ones that focus more on the characters, particularly Billy Butcher and Homelander, who are pretty much the only reasons to watch anymore. (Antony Starr gets a lot of credit for his portrayal of Homelander, and it’s well deserved, but I love Karl Urban as Butcher even more.)
As far as that goes, I liked Soldier Boy in season 3; he was a lot different from the version in the comics, but so is almost everyone on the show, so it’s hard to complain about just one. (They absolutely destroyed Starlight in recent years, though.) However, there’s a big problem with the character: he should be dead. And I don’t mean because of the physics of his powers or anything; I mean it was the right storytelling choice. Soldier Boy served his purpose by the end of season 3; he was the embodiment of Butcher going too far in his desire to kill Homelander, embracing someone just as evil as his nemesis and, in turn, succumbing to evil himself. Butcher understood that by the end and tried to stop Soldier Boy, realizing that he’d unleashed a monster who would, at best, take Homelander’s place as a threat to humanity. And just when he was about to destroy them all, Queen Maeve – who’d had her own arc from going along with Homelander out of fear to defying him – sacrificed herself to save everyone and make sure Soldier Boy was put down for good, redeeming herself for her role in Homelander’s villainy in the process. It was an excellent wrap-up for both characters… until the show ruined it five minutes later by revealing that they were both alive, so Maeve’s sacrifice was meaningless (she actually made out pretty well on it), and Soldier Boy would return for ratings. At this point, unless they do something really innovative with him, bringing back Soldier Boy is little more than a stunt, so they may as well go all the way and cast Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins for the full effect.
Let us know what you think of Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins joining The Boys in the comments!
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