As wild as it is to believe, The Boys has officially come to an end. The most unhinged show on television bowed out with its blood-soaked series finale that concluded the arcs of Homelander, Billy Butcher, Hughie Campbell, Ryan, Starlight, and so many more of the characters who had become fixtures of our TV screens over the past seven years. However, there was one glaring absence.
Soldier Boy was nowhere to be seen in "Blood and Bone", leaving Jensen Ackles fans around the world feeling very disappointed by the finale. However, if you had been keeping up with The Boys season 5, you probably already know what happened to the character and why he didn't return in the final episode.
Soldier Boy was put on ice again by Homelander
We last saw Soldier Boy in The Boys season 5 episode 7 when he had finally called it a day with his son Homelander and all of the crazy nonsense that being a Supe brought with it. He had given Homelander what he needed by instilling him with the V1 formula to essentially make him immortal because he felt that this is what his great love Stormfront would have wanted, but he couldn't stand to be around his immature, selfish, and destructive son any longer. So, with that, he told him he was leaving.
Homelander didn't take too kindly to that and decided to choke his father out, once again imprisoning him in the cryo-chamber in his bedroom that has cut his multiple eras short over the years. The last time we see him, he is there once more, frozen and out to the world - alive but hibernating, perhaps never to be awoken again.
Needless to say, fans were holding out hope that he might resurface in the series finale, perhaps aiding the Boys in defeating Homelander once and for all, but it wasn't to be. We knew this before the finale as a surprise comment from showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed that Jensen Ackles had filmed his final scenes for the show during that seventh episode, but audiences were crossing their fingers that it was simply a misdirect. Unfortunately, it wasn't.
Ackles did not appear in the final episode of The Boys and therefore Soldier Boy wasn't present for the end of his son's reign of terror. Considering that his arc was very much shaping up to feature some kind of redemption, we all thought he would partake in ending Homelander's grip on the world. But it wasn't to be.
Solider Boy will return in Vought Rising (but there's a caveat)
Now, he's one of the few villainous Supes from the original show to live on, but it's unclear where - or if - he will ever return. Well, in the future of the timeline, at least - because The Boys franchise already has plans for Solider Boy's next appearance. But before you get too excited, it will be taking place in the past of the franchise.
Jensen Ackles has signed on to reprise his role as the original Supe in 2027's spinoff series Vought Rising. As the title implies, the show will focus on the origins of Vought International, while also exploring Solider Boy's relationship with Stormfront. And yes, that means that Aya Cash is reprising her role from the early seasons of The Boys as the heinous villain.
While that's obviously fantastic because it means that Ackles' Solider Boy will be back on our screens next year, it doesn't confirm if we will see the character ever taken off the ice in the present day. There is still hope on that front, as a separate spinoff titled The Boys: Mexico is in the works, too. And unlike Vought Rising, it will be set after the events of The Boys' series finale, so we could at least get answers as to what actually happened to Solider Boy.
In the meantime, you know fans are counting down the says to his return to screens in Vought Rising.
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