How different will Soldier Boy be in The Boys Season 5? Jensen Ackles gives a tease

The Boys Season 5 is still a year away, as it is expected to release somewhere in 2026. Recently, Jensen Ackles was interviewed by Variety on September 3, 2025, to discuss the finale of his Prime Video series, Countdown. But their discussion did slowly veer towards Ackles' other significant role apart from Supernatural's Dean Winchester: Soldier Boy in The Boys.

Soldier Boy sat out almost the entirety of The Boys Season 4, as he was declared dead but incapacitated in a mysterious location in the third season's finale. However, the mid-credit scene of the season 4 finale sees Homelander finally learn that Soldier Boy is alive. This mid-credit scene serves as a major set for The Boys Season 5, meaning Ackles will play a major role in the final season.

What did Jensen Ackles say about Soldier Boy's role in The Boys Season 5?

The Variety reporter who was interviewing Jensen Ackles asked the actor who is playing Soldier Boy if he found any new layer to the character, as he is set to reprise the role twice in The Boys Season 5 and the prequel series Vought Rising, which is set in the 1950s. Jensen Ackles gave a long response to this question:

"Obviously, they’re the same guy, but certainly there’s a lot of life that Soldier Boy has lived when we see him in “The Boys” and when we see him in Season 5 — how he’s relating to people, the things that are important to him, the things that he’s willing to just slough off, his idea of the life he wants to lead."

Then, after teasing what to expect from his character in The Boys Season 5, the actor went on to tease his character in the prequel series, Vought Rising:

"And then going back 70-odd years to see him when he was really starting to get going, I’m able now to deal with the struggles that made him who he became, and you start to see him before he has necessarily the swagger and the gravitas and the life lived of 75 years of being the top dog. [“Vought Rising”] predates all that, so I think I’m trying to show a little bit more of an early version of it — not necessarily an innocence to it, but there’s certainly scenes, relationships and character traits that predate how we see him in modern day, and that’s fun to play with. Now, that’s not to say he’s going to be a completely different character and he’s not going to be the tough guy that I think we know and love. That’s there, and we’ll get there quickly, but it is fun to show the origin of how this guy became who he is, and what were the little tricks and little ticks that crafted him into where we see him now."

Thus, based on what Jensen Ackles said in the Variety interview, it seems that we are going to learn more about the character in both The Boys Season 5 and Vought Rising. The third season, which also marks the Supernatural actor's entry in The Boys Universe, did address Soldier Boy's strained relationship with his own father, but nothing more. Looks like the people working on the franchise are going to expand upon his backstory.

Soldier Boy will switch sides in The Boys Season 5:

The Boys panel at SDCC 2024 was one of the earliest sources of important storylines in the fifth season. As mentioned earlier, Jensen Ackles's return in The Boys Season 4 finale mid-credit scene saw his Soldier Boy unconscious as he was contained inside the cryogenic chamber. An emotional Homelander leans over the chamber, and the screen cuts to black.

If you remember, Soldier Boy, Billy Butcher, and Homelander fought in The Boys Season 3 finale. Butcher and Soldier Boy were collaborators, where the latter could help the former bring down Homelander. It must be noted that Soldier Boy could shoot beams from his body, which could depower any supe in his vicinity, except for himself.

However, Homelander and Billy Butcher both fought Soldier Boy in the Season 3 finale as the power-draining sup attacked Ryan. Soldier Boy views Billy Butcher's actions against him in the season 3 finale as an act of betrayal. Therefore, Homelander and Soldier Boy settle their differences and collaborate against a common enemy in The Boys Season 5. Showrunner Eric Kripke himself confirmed this to Gamesradar+ at SDCC 2024:

"You know, what we realized was we really hadn't explored the father-son relationship much between Homelander and Soldier Boy. There's a lot of material there, how soldier boy feels about Homelander, how Homelander feels about his dad, and so we really wanted to dig into that relationship. Soldier Boy is really driven to kill Butcher after Butcher betrayed him in season 3. So he's just an excellent antagonist, to switch sides and basically, you know, to be with the supes."

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The Boys Season 5 is expected to stream in 2026, and doesn't have a release window or date for now. If you haven't seen the four seasons of the series, catch them and the spin-off series Gen V on Prime Video.

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