The Boys Season 3: Jensen Ackles Teases Soldier Boy in New Set Photo

Production on the third season of The Boys continues and new recruit Jensen Ackles has completed his mandatory quarantine period, confirming his now on set and ready to film his role in a new photo. Ackles took to Instagram, showing off his giant-as-ever beard and pointing toward his trailer, writing “Just another day at the ‘NEW’ office. Happy taco Tuesday, folks.” Eric Kripke, Ackles’ collaborator on Supernatural for the first five seasons, reposted the image on Twitter, adding “Enter #SoldierBoy. BUCKLE UP MOTHERF-KERS.” As previously reported, Ackles character “Soldier Boy” was a clear analogue for Marvel superhero Captain America in the original comics.

“I think anyone expecting Jensen to show up and be a good guy, they will be disappointed. I’ll say that! [Laughs],” Eric Kripke previously said in an interview with Variety. “In the comics he’s mostly just kind of bumbling and subservient to Homelander, I would say. As we’re writing him in this, we’re getting to really talk about the history of Vought because he’s like John Wayne. He’s one of these guys that’s been around for decades of Vought history. And he was Homelander before Homelander, so he’s from a different era, but he’s got the ego and the ambition — it just comes across in a different way because he’s from a different time.”

Fans have been going wild with the revelation of Ackles’ new beard, especially since it was previously unclear if he was growing it for the role or just for fun. It’s worth noting that in the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic series that, like Captain America himself, Soldier Boy was very much clean-shaven in the source material. Perhaps some major liberties are being taken with the character in the series but in the end it seems likely that he’ll be butting heads with either Homelander, Billy Butcher, or both. In any event, there will be blood, again.

“I’ll put it to you this way. I was talking to the head makeup artist and she’s in charge of ordering the blood — that’s one of her many jobs,” Mother’s Milk actor Laz Alonso previously told Collider about the gore levels in the new season. “She told me that all of Season 2… When you talk about bulk, I don’t think they used over a gallon of blood in Season 2, believe it or not. Season 3, we’re already at three and a half gallons of blood. So that should give you a little indication of where it’s going.”

Both seasons of The Boys are now streaming on Amazon Prime. It’s unclear when the third season will premiere but cameras are rolling.