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The Boys’ Eric Kripke says Season 3 will be all about 'exploring America itself as a myth'
Like Watchmen before it, The Boys is all about satirizing decades of superhero tropes through prevalent societal issues of politics, sexuality, immigration, race, and senseless violence (to name a few). These comics, and their subsequent adaptations, represent subversion at its finest because we all know that if superheroes were real, they would most certainly not be pure of heart.
The Boys just has the guts to say what we're all thinking, and with Season 3 all set to introduce the character of Soldier Boy — played by Supernatural's Jensen Ackles as a less noble version of Captain America — the hit Amazon series wants to take a dive into "the myths we tell ourselves, to feel that we’re righteous, really exploring America itself as a myth," showrunner Eric Kripke recently explained to Deadline.
Kripke went on to hint that we'll see several flashbacks to World War II (the era in which Soldier Boy was created) and the Vietnam War, as is shown in the comics. "I always really loved it because you got to see how the superhero phenomenon didn’t just affect the present, but how it affected parts of the past as well," he continued. "And so, we have this character, Soldier Boy ... and he’s been around since World War II and was the first Vought superhero. Through him and through his story, we’re able to explore a lot of the history of the country, really."
As opposed to Steve Rogers, who received the super-soldier serum from Dr. Erskine — a German scientist who escaped from the Nazis — Soldier Boy was the direct result of the Third Reich's gross and amoral medical experimentation. That not only turns the patriotic mascot archetype on its head, but also opens the door for an examination of the nature of patriotism itself, and how it can sometimes turn ugly. Kripke alluded to this when he told Deadline that Season 3 diverges from the xenophobic themes of the last two seasons in favor of tackling more home-grown fears.
"I’d say in previous seasons the boogeyman for you to be scared of used to be, 'The terrorists are coming to get you.' And now it’s sort of metastasized into, I think, a much more ominous, 'Your neighbor is coming to get you,'" he added. "And that’s scary to me, how politics are turning us on each other. So, we want to explore what it means to be in America, really."
Kripke also revealed that production on the next batch of episodes is more than halfway through, which means we could see Season 3 premiere as early as the beginning of 2022. "It’s all happening," he said. "I went through the quarantine and was on set for about three-and-a-half weeks, just in the beginning, to get everybody off and running. But since then, I’ve been here [in L.A.]."
