The Boys’ Jensen Ackles Took Inspiration From Golden Age Actors To Portray Soldier Boy [Exclusive]

So far, Soldier Boy has been more of an offscreen presence, spoken of if not always seen, in “The Boys” season 3. In episode 3, “Barbary Coast,” he did finally show up in a flashback, as former CIA director Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) related her experience dealing with him in Nicaragua during the Cold War.

In this scene, Soldier Boy does speak with a different cadence, as Ackles mentioned, while loading up a bazooka and making sexist comments to Grace. Though Ackles shied away from naming a specific actor or character as inspiration for Soldier Boy, his costume consciously evokes the one worn by Chris Evans in “Captain America: The First Avenger.” 

That movie, helmed by Joe Johnston, the same director behind “The Rocketeer,” was steeped in Golden Age nostalgia, but “The Boys” is far less sentimental about America’s past and present. Soldier Boy’s NRA-friendly sidekick, Gunpowder, is all the more disturbing in light of recent real-life shootings, which have only served to hammer home the same message, again and again, that the country’s gun culture is out of control. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in a show that explores the dark underbelly of a crumbling capitalist society where “everyone’s a hero at Voughtland” and superheroes are the opium of the people.

The first three episodes of “The Boys” season 3 are now streaming on Prime Video.