“The Boys” universe is growing with a prequel series called “Vought Rising.” The prequel will be set in 1950s New York. Ackles made the news on stage during the “The Boys” Comic-Con panel on Friday, calling the prequel a “lurid pulp saga prequel.”
Following his cameo in last week’s Season 4 finale, Ackles has announced his return to “The Boys” for the fifth and final season.
“We are excited to bring you the next deranged series from the world of ‘The Boys,'” “The Boys” creator Eric Kripke and “Vought Rising” showrunner Paul Grellong said in a statement. “It’s a convoluted murder mystery concerning Vought’s roots in the 1950s, Soldier Boy’s early adventures, and the diabolical machinations of Stormfront, then known as Clara Vought. We can’t wait to blast your thoughts and disturb your souls with this sinister, blood-soaked epic featuring Compound V.”
Kripke was joined by cast members Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Tomer Capone, Laz Alonso, Antony Starr, Jessie T. Usher, Claudia Doumit, Nathan Mitchell, Chace Crawford, Susan Heyward, and Valorie Curry for the “The Boys” Comic-Con panel, which took place one week after the Season 4 finale debuted on Amazon on July 18.
Ackles made a surprise cameo at the conclusion, and the discussion was chaired by Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who joined the cast in Season 4 as CIA agent Joe Kessler).
It began with a musical mashup of “The Boys” in-universe songs, such as “Chimps Don’t Cry,” “Never Truly Vanish,” “Let’s Put the Christ Back in Christmas,” and A-Train’s rap “Faster.”
“The Boys” finished off Season 4 last week, leaving multiple cliffhangers for the show’s fifth and final season.
Homelander (Starr) has basically taken over the US government after the new president declared martial law.
Homelander and Vought’s influence has grown considerably, and all of the Boys have been separated, abducted, and transported to unknown destinations, leaving Hughie (Quaid), Starlight (Moriarty), Mother’s Milk (Alonso), Frenchie (Capone), and Kimiko (Fukuhara) missing in action.
A post-credits sequence also showed that Ackles’ character, Soldier Boy, a Captain America copycat introduced in Season 3, had been preserved in a cryo-chamber.
In Season 3, Homelander discovered that Soldier Boy is his father, setting for an awkward family reunion in Season 5.
The Season 4 finale, which featured an attempted attack by a shapeshifter on the president-elect and the successful murder of vice-president elect Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) by Butcher (Karl Urban), came just a few days after former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
The episode was initially named “Assassination Run,” but was changed to just “Season Four Finale.”
There was also a content warning, indicating that the episode was shot in 2023 and that “any similarities” were “coincidental and unintentional.”
“The season finale of ‘The Boys’ contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump,” according to a release from Prime Video. “‘The Boys’ is a hypothetical series shot in 2023, and any scene or narrative resemblance to real-world events are accidental and unintended. Amazon, Sony Pictures Television, and the makers of ‘The Boys’ categorically oppose any form of real-world violence.
Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash will reprise their roles from “Boys” as Soldier Boy and Stormfront, respectively.