The Boys

The Boys premiere recap: Damn, we've missed this show! To say the first three episodes of season 3 are "shocking" is an understatement.

In the climax of the prior episode, he injected himself with V-24 in order to take on Gunpowder. But now… - As much as I love Hughie and Starlight together, the writers have done a great job of making me invested in the Supersonic/Starlight relationship. In classic Butcher fashion, he makes a bold move to push Ryan away for good — not by opening up about his feelings — by telling Ryan that he can't stand to look at the monster who killed his wife. But there's one person who might know: Payback's CIA handler — and Butcher's mentor — Grace Mallory. With that intel in hand, Butcher has a chance to let Gunpowder walk free, but with the combination of V-24 and blind rage flowing through his veins, he can't help himself — and he beats Gunpowder to death. Hughie, however, is unaware of this encroaching romantic threat, as he's busy with Butcher and the Boys — including Mother's Milk ( Laz Alonso) who's back in the ring after a few episodes of daddy-daughter time — pressing CIA agent Grace Mallory for insight into the cause of Soldier Boy's death. In the last episode, Queen Maeve gave him a valuable piece of intel that could help him eliminate Homelander once and for all — but that's not all she gave him. Back in the world of Vaught, there's a bunch of super-powered shenanigans going on. Instead, Gunpowder tries to murder Butcher in the parking lot after the convention, and nearly succeeds. After failing to arrest a superhero named Termite (in what's perhaps the most hilariously outlandish sequence thus far in all of The Boys, and that's saying something), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) steps in with a potentially game-changing piece of intel: Regardless, Homelander's thrilled to celebrate his greatness and to do, as he puts it: "Whatever the hell I want." But in the world of The Boys, good things don't last. It's been a year and a half since the explosive finale of The Boys season 2, and they haven't missed a beat, kicking off season 3 with a premiere that's as shocking as it is…

Amazon has premiered the first three episodes of The Boys season 3 today, and it plans to launch the rest of them weekly to extend the conversation about ...

You’ll see. You’ll see. Amazon Prime Video has had fewer hits than its high profile competitors, but they’ve landed a few knockout punches.

What does peacetime look like for The Boys? A recap of 'Payback,' episode 1 of the third season of 'The Boys' on Amazon Prime Video.

But perhaps the peacetime that both Vought and Neuman are so keen to maintain isn’t peacetime at all; it’s just stasis. For all his high-and-mightiness about the work he and Neuman have been doing — and, to be fair, they have contributed to a steep drop in “suit collateral” — the rich and famous still rarely face any repercussions. Of course, Butcher refuses to pass along Becca’s son Ryan’s location to Homelander; he’s bonded a lot with the kid over the year of Ryan’s isolated stay with Boys founder Grace Mallory. For all Butcher’s fears of becoming his father, he’s becoming a surprisingly good one himself. The two men agree to commit to their own favored brand of warfare: scorched earth, with only one left standing at the end. Neuman is complicit in sweeping the first death of the episode under the rug. “Think about what that would mean to millions of girls,” she tells Hughie, momentarily forgetting the real end goal here. It’s nice to see the big secret about Hughie’s new boss come out so early on, instead of after a few episodes of wheel-spinning. Creative violence is this show’s bread and butter, especially as it intersects with sex, so you can imagine the writer’s room laughing their asses off coming up with each beat of this scene. There’s no point in putting it off, so let’s dive in (no pun intended): at his boyfriend’s request, Termite shrinks down and squeezes through his urethra, stroking the inner walls of his dick as he meanders toward the prostate. Only two people die in the episode (a low body count in this show), and neither character was featured before this episode, anyway. It’s clear from the beginning of the episode that this ceasefire is temporary (if it even exists at all). In fact, much of “Payback” feels like the calm before the storm. What has happened in the last twelve months, and can an uneasy truce be sustained based on the threat of mutually assured destruction alone?

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke discusses how Jensen Ackles was cast as Soldier Boy for Season 3 — and how the Supernatural actor fought for the role.

He can be scary, he can be emotional, he can be a credible action star. So it hadn't occurred to me to think of Jensen because he plays as younger, but it wasn't until I was on the phone with him that I was like, 'Wait a minute, are you interested in this part? The hopelessly smarmy supe is played by Jensen Ackles, and the role reunites him with show creator Eric Kripke — the two worked together for a time on Supernatural when the series was first taking off on the now-CW — and let's just say that Soldier Boy is a pretty far cry from anything Dean Winchester ever was, even on his worst day.

Let's talk about that cameo from the first 60 seconds of 'The Boys' season 3 premiere.

Then there were mutants attacking New York City. And now in the final cut, Stormfront is the real villain of the movie. (Outside the show, Gilroy, the screenwriter of Michael Clayton, was hired by Lucasfilm to oversee reshoots of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.) complicated. It was meant as a fake dramatization of the Seven's origins, uniting Homelander, Stormfront, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), A-Train ( Jessie Usher), and Translucent over a common threat. Kripke and his writers like to use the world of The Boys to satirize our own culture, including superhero culture. The actress showed up in one of two end-credits scenes as the comic book character Clea. Showrunner Eric Kripke and his stars have been keeping a major season 3 casting secret under wraps for months, and it was finally revealed within the opening minute of season 3's first episode.

This particular season deals with a lot, including the return of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), Homelander (Antony Starr) being Homelander but on metaphorical ...

However, Supersonic better watch his back, as he has no idea how dangerous it is to be so close to Homelander, who can snap at any moment, for frankly, any reason. There are a bunch of new supes who have been introduced, of course, which was inevitable as there are several vacancies in The Seven after Stormfront and The Deep's departure. Apart from bringing back The Deep into the Seven to further traumatize Starlight, he forces her to put up with his cruelty, both on and off camera. Season 3 of "The Boys," like much of its previous run, is definitely not for the faint of heart, as it features an extremely bonkers storyline and scenes that are bound to be etched on your brain for quite some time. Supersonic and Starlight's bond is mostly sweet, as the two care about each other as close friends do. Supersonic is based on Garth Ennis' comics character Drummer Boy, who used to date Starlight when they were together in the teenage superhero group, The Young Americans. Much is not known about Drummer Boy except the fact that he cheated on Starlight with fellow supe Holy Mary, who was also a member of the group.

The Boys introduces this highly anticipated character (played by Jensen Ackles) through a few interesting flashbacks and videos. We don't get to meet Soldier ...

And maybe we can meet more of the Payback in the future. But, while Stormfront ultimately runs the comic Payback show, Soldier Boy is in charge in the TV lineup. We don’t get confirmation if Soldier Boy is still alive in present time. Grace says she doesn’t know where the supe gun is nor does she know where the others are. We uncover our first bits of information about the TV version of Soldier Boy in The Boys first episode of season three. Well, we know where Noir is because he’s in the Seven. And Swatto died during that battle where 160 men died and Vought wasn’t held responsible. Soldier Boy was born poor in South Philly and allegedly became a war hero (thanks to Compound V) against the Red Menace. He is Vought’s very first superhero (using that word loosely here). Soldier Boy is super strong, fast, can fight hand to hand, and has a shield in addition to his powers. The chosen supes were Payback, including Crimson Countess, Gunpowder, Soldier Boy, Noir, Mindstorm, the TNT Twins, and Swatto. So Payback and Soldier Boy are essentially the older version of Seven and Homelander. As with all these heroes, Crimson Countess does borrow from Marvel/DC with some Scarlet Witch-esque powers. (Butcher blackmails her into honesty.) She was into some shady drug trafficking business in Nicaragua during Operation Charlie. The “higher ups” decided to bring a crew of supes into an active war zone. Gunpowder, another Payback member, is a “rights to bear arms” dude who ends up tussling with Butcher after the latter says he would tell people that Soldier Boy allegedly abused him. Soldier Boy is here and he’s definitely no Captain America. The Boys introduces this highly anticipated character (played by Jensen Ackles) through a few interesting flashbacks and videos.

The Boys is back for eight more blood-soaked episodes in Season 3. Billy Butcher, Homelander, Hughie, and more are back for more fun.

The Boys Season 3, like Seasons 1 and 2, will be eight episodes in total. The cursing. It's the violence. Season 3 picks up right where Season 2 left off; Billy Butcher ( Karl Urban) and Hughie Campbell ( Jack Quaid) have both gone legit in their fight against the Supes, with Butcher's crew working under the CIA umbrella and Hughie working as the right hand to Victoria Neumann (Claudia Doumit)—who may or may not be the mysterious figure who can make people's heads explode whenever the hell she feels like it. It's been a while since the last blood-soaked, gut-filled season of Amazon Prime Video's superhero send-up The Boys, but man are we glad to have it back. Not good at all!

Fun! Meanwhile, Butcher (Karl Urban), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Frenchie (Tomer Capon) work to get info about Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) from his old ...

“I’m the real hero.” And with that, the episode ends. With that, Butcher heads back to the convention to confront Gunpowder. The guy shoots him several times, and Butcher falls… The prolonged, heartfelt goodbye he says to his ex-wife does not inspire confidence that he’ll survive Season 3. “No God. The only man in the sky is me.” Caught between his laser eyes and the fall, she jumps. He’s left with a bullet in his leg and a cut on his cheek, but he gets away. He tries to threaten her, and then Stan Edgar, who’s been watching the dress rehearsal, cuts in and tells Homelander that since Starlight’s numbers are better, she “can call her own shots.” With that, Homelander storms away. He shares the info about Red River with her. “Oh, God,” the girl says. Ringing in his ears, Homelander rants at the girl and says she should, in fact, jump. With his annual televised birthday celebration approaching, “The Only Man in the Sky” turns the insane supe into a ticking time bomb of contempt, arrogance, and pent-up rage. (He wasn’t supposed to go there without Annie [ Erin Moriarty], but, oh well.) He lies to the nurse and says he and Starlight are thinking of adopting, and he’s able to copy information from one of their computers onto a flash drive. Fun! Meanwhile, Butcher ( Karl Urban), Kimiko ( Karen Fukuhara), and Frenchie ( Tomer Capon) work to get info about Soldier Boy ( Jensen Ackles) from his old Payback teammates.

The Boys Season 3 premiere sets up the potential for an all-new, all-terrifying version of Homelander. Here's what it means for The Boys, Starlight, ...

What he might do next is a chilling thing to ponder, but, as in the real world, the scariest part is asking ourselves how the “good guys” will redirect a monster that has grown much, much bigger than any one person. Other options may include the many other unstable supes that exist in a secret government bunker, but perhaps most likely is the chance of a partnership with Soldier Boy, “the first superhero.” Referred to as “Homelander before there was Homelander,” it should be clear that his politics are dicey and he’s not exactly a team player, but his well-earned hostility toward Vought could entail him allying with The Boys. At this rate, it looks like they’re going to need all the help they can get. This is disturbingly reminiscent of his interactions with Queen Maeve in the first two seasons, and as with Maeve, he’s keeping Starlight off-balance in order to keep the upper hand. Homelander’s increasingly public revelations of his rotten core have only led to a surge in his ratings, putting the rest of The Seven and The Boys in similar positions attempting to navigate his ever-escalating bad behavior. Having already gone above and beyond to make an enemy of Queen Maeve, he’s moved on to attempting to break Starlight while continuing to bully the others. Nowhere is that more true than Homelander, whose anger at being “subdued” has encouraged bolder acts that go beyond cruelty and into outright fascism.

In Episode 3 of the new season of The Boys, a suped-up Billy Butcher gets the gang back together to desperately find a way to kill Homelander, leader of the ...

Now that Season 3 is out, we get to go a bit deeper into one of the first superhero groups in the history of The Boys. The loudmouth parody of Marvel's Captain America is the leader of Payback. And he has the strength to help America win World War II—and presumably has strength comparable to Homelander. His anti-aging ability preserves not only his skin, but also the sexist norms of the 1940s, when telling a female case officer for the CIA she needs to smile was acceptable to him. Until we see Orphan Black's Ryan Blakely do more than protrude his large forehead for a pose, we'll reserve judgment on how useful Mind-Storm is in The Boys universe. So far on this season of The Boys, she's only shot a few fireballs, but in the comics, she has Homelander-style heat vision lasers and can manipulate fire on a greater level than Season 2 standout Lamplighter. We may not have seen the last of what Crimson can do. In Episode 3 of the new season of The Boys, a suped-up Billy Butcher gets the gang back together to desperately find a way to kill Homelander, leader of the more popular Avengers spin-off The Seven, once and for all. Through her recollection of that catastrophic event, we find out about one of the first groups of superheroes Vought tried to shove into military action—Payback.

The Prime Video hit returns for more gory mayhem—and while it's not good satire, at least it's good television.

Everyone is an asshole, and this is just brutality for the sake of one-upsmanship, for the shock factor that, at this point, isn’t that shocking, and is probably just gross. This show is the kind of storytelling that comes out of the idea that everyone is an asshole, waiting to fuck you over. This drama is just part of the fabric of our world, and even exploding penises and mental ménages à trois with octopi can’t top the absolute horrorshow that is our nightly news. It shows people in power destroying the world; it idolizes people who find moments of peace, levity, or strength amid the overwhelmingly horrible situations and systems; and instead of exposing the hypocrisy of corporations who attempt to capitalize on the neoliberal “wokeness” of society, it merely reminds us that it happens, and isn’t that funny? This is the world of The Boys. Nobody is coming to save you. Because Butcher values individualism over society, because he is a neoliberal who wishes for the obscure “better,” but rejects the society he seeks to save, he disregards the social norms of that society, instead embracing the wanton violence and destruction he believes is the problem with superheroes. What is the point of The Boys if it just emphasizes that all this is just the way the world is? In season three, this is perfectly exemplified by the fact that he takes V24—a compound that gives him superpowers, despite his saying in earlier seasons that the reason he founded the Boys is because “no individual should have that much power.” Butcher is so full of himself, so absurdly focused on his own goals, that he becomes what he used to hate, and that’s fine, actually, because he’s still an individual. The neoliberal individualist does things for themselves because of a belief that society will not, or can not, help them. Because he is, at the core, the poster-boy for the fantasy of the self-successful neoliberal individualist. The world is brutal and unkind. When you present a fictionalized, satirical view of the world, or make an attempt to do so, you hold up a mirror to the society we already live in.

The Seven are some of the most powerful "supes" on The Boys. But who's the most powerful of them all? We rank them here.

As the wife of Frederick Vought, she became the first known superhero, and she is by far one of the most powerful. Just a few of the powers we see from Noir, but his main ability is his high martial arts prowess. The only other supe we see with this ability is Homelander, and he is clearly impressed by this as he falls for her. The ability to turn completely invisible is his trademark power, but it's arguably his carbon skin that makes him so formidable. One of the few on this list that is a consistent member of The Seven, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is a great all-rounder. He is able to send a girl in the tunnel flying through the wall, and is also to send Starlight flying through the air, which is very impressive considering she's pretty strong herself. After spending years as a local hero, she is attracted by the glamour of The Seven, but quickly discovers the dark reality of being a member. Noir is definitely one of the most feared in the group and is highly reliable, but he has one unfortunate weakness that lets him down: Tree nuts. Her alliance to The Boys massively helps them in their pursuit of taking down The Seven, providing them with intelligence and working from the inside to bring them down. One of the earlier members of The Seven, Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) was replaced by Starlight, with not much being known about him in the first season. One of the first heroes we meet, The Deep (Chace Crawford) finds himself sinking toward the bottom of the rankings. Kicking things off, we have Shockwave (Mishka Thébaud). Although he never really made it to The Seven, he was all set to join as the replacement to A-Train after the latter's forced retirement.

The first episode of The Boys Season 3 sees a major actor making a cameo as a new version of Stormfront.

Production on The Boys Season 3 was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of The Boys Season 2, Stormfront was gravely wounded by Homelander's son, Ryan. Also known as Klara Risinger and Liberty, Stormfront was a supe introduced in The Boys Season 1, where she was played by Aya Cash. Stormfront was the wife of Frederick Vought, who founded the corporation bearing his name.

The former flame of Homelander (Antony Starr) and surprise Nazi had a throwdown with Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Queen Maeve ( ...

Deluded by the blond-haired, blue-eyed god among men she fell for and is bound to, all of her encounters with Homelander are uncomfortable to see. True to Eric Kripke's word following the end of the last season, Stormfront (or Stumpfront, as he lovingly renamed her) has returned this season, only looking very much worse for wear. Following the events of last season, one character fans of "The Boys" were curious to see make a comeback (well, as much of one as she could, given her circumstances) was Aya Cash's Stormfront. The former flame of Homelander (Antony Starr) and surprise Nazi had a throwdown with Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) before being cut down by Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and his laser vision.

Stormfront is alive in 'The Boys' Season 3 premiere, but how is she alive after she appeared to die in the Season 2 finale?

In the comics, Stormfront is a physically powerful Nazi, but also a man whose DNA is used to create Homelander. We still aren't getting that superhuman Aryan race of mini Homelanders though, which is absolutely for the best. So, how is Stormfront alive in The Boys? She was believed to be dead at the end of Season 2 and even Homelander could hardly believe his Nazi girlfriend met such a gruesome end. In the Season 3 premiere, we see that Stormfront is alive. And in Season 3 Episode 2, it's reported that Stormfront bites off her own tongue and dies by suicide. Season 2 of The Boys ended with a bang — literally — when Stormfront was seemingly blown to pieces by Homelander's son's heat vision.

Spoiler Alert. Amazon Studios. [Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Boys Season 3 premiere, “Payback.”] Of course, of ...

A man shows up at Neuman’s office demanding to talk to “Nadia,” and while Hughie doesn’t think much of it at first, it’s a massive clue as to Neuman’s true identity. “I look forward to it,” Homelander says, and then he vanishes. If Butcher can find out what it was, he can use it to, as Maeve puts it, “blow his brains out.” She also hands him three vials of V-24, and leaves after telling him not to “f**k up” their one chance to kill Homelander. Stan pitches it to a presidential candidate as “V-24,” a temporary Compound V: It gives soldiers powers to complete a mission, and then it wears off after a day. When the premiere kicks off, shockingly, things are actually pretty OK for Hughie ( Jack Quaid). He has no clue his boss at the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs is a head-exploding supe, he and Annie, a.k.a. Starlight ( Erin Moriarty), have gone public, and he’s committed to taking down bad guys the right way. (If you require context, this involves a supe with shrinking powers who’s high as a kite, a sex thing, and an unfortunately timed sneeze.)

The Boys had maybe its most disgusting scene ever, featuring an Ant-Man-esque hero named Termite and an exploding penis.

This is Termite's first major inclusion in the show by Kripke and company, though he was previously seen in the secret Supe sex club that Butcher and Hughie walked through in the very first episode. "Then silicon viscera was created, from blood to intestines, to assorted organs, and packed into the dummy's hollow rib cage, so that when it flopped onto the bed, the blood and guts would spill out of it." He tells Termite he didn't see anything, but then Termite doesn't have any interest in word of this getting out—he shrinks down to bug size, and, in a lovely reference to the famous Ant-Man Endgame theory, tries to fly into Frenchie's behind to explode him. And then the romantic suitor tells Termite that he wants to take things to the next level. Luckily, Billy Butcher ( Karl Urban) is monitoring from afar, and comes in to save the day: throwing Termite into a bag of cocaine and shaking him up like a powdered sugar dispenser for a delicious Sunday waffle. So, after the premiere for a movie called Pocket Romance, we find Frenchie (Tomer Capone) monitoring the afterparty for its hard-partying, showboating star, Termite (Brett Geddes). Termite has the power to grow very small and (presumably) very large, and shows this off in front of his adoring party guests.

New and crazy adventures await William Butcher (Karl Urban) and his team in their attempt to eliminate Vought's Supes. Plus, Billy seems more relentless than ...

Let us know in the comments section below. The task to portray the first live-action adaptation of Soldier Boy has been entrusted to Jensen Ackles. 44-year-old Ackles is coming off a fifteen-year run as Dean Winchester, the demon hunter in The CW’s Supernatural. His credits also include voicing Bruce Wayne in the Batman: The Long Halloween animation movies. In the comics, Soldier Boy was introduced in 2009’s Herogasm miniseries created by Garth Ennis, John McCrea, and Keith Burns. Soldier Boy’s role and powers mock pretty much the ones of Marvel’s Steve Rogers, including his shield as a melee weapon.

As Amazon Prime Video's diabolical superhero show returns with Karl Urban, we look at newcomers including Jensen Ackles and Laurie Holden.

As well as the distinction of having played the titular character in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Flaney has been in The Dead Zone, Dexter and The Bay, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award. A character in the comics, he is a firearms enthusiast and is able to manipulate projectiles and conjure weapons from thin air. Also on Dexter, Winter played Katrina Crane on Sleepy Hollow and appeared in The Catch and Agent Hamilton. He is based on the original comics’ character of Drummer Boy. She is a member of the Payback superhero team. Supernatural star Jensen is Soldier Boy, the first-ever superhero, and a parody-style figure of Captain America.

Prime Video's action-packed satire asks, "What do the good guys do when the bad guys just keep winning?"

What makes The Boys’ approach to this familiar territory stick—like a speedboat plunging straight into the innards of Lucy the Whale stick—is its unrelenting winks to the world in which we actually live. But generally speaking, The Boys remains one of the more in-touch satires in streaming, putting a fine point on a metaphoric dagger too many other shows wield like a blunt butter knife. So to get what they want, The Boys have to decide what parts of themselves they’re willing to lose. (If there’s an argument to be made for a The Boys movie, then it’s seeing those cruel, icy orbs on the big screen.) So, in a painful action-packed dramedy of errors that never lets up, The Boys season three takes aim at a daunting question: What do the good guys do when the bad guys just keep winning? Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Frenchie (Tomer Kapon), and even Butcher (Karl Urban) try to do the same.

Showrunner Eric Kripke explains how that explosive scene from the Season 3 premiere has a surprising practical effect.

That tunnel inside is really the urethra inside that giant penis. What was supposed to be an act of pleasure turns into a bloody mess. The Boys has never been shy about its gratuitous violence or sexual exploits ever since it first premiered on Prime Video back in 2019.

Roxana Hadadi is a TV critic who also writes about film and pop culture, with the closed captions on and motion smoothing off. Photo: Amazon Prime. Dicks ...

The fight scenes continue to be well-blocked and well-staged, in particular a few in the season’s back half that are less about splashy choreography and more about brawny brutalism between their participants. Whatever can happen will happen, and whatever can go wrong will go wrong — but not wrong enough to leave a lasting impact in the world of The Boys. Sadism is still there: brain matter splooging out of a skull, the sticky smear of a body dragged along pavement, a supe punching through another person’s abdomen (a scene that happens twice with two different sets of characters). Fatherhood as a burden is still there: more memories of Butcher’s abusive father, and two more story lines with the same dynamics. But whatever wounds these men inflict upon each other are wiped away by The Boys’ unwillingness to genuinely change the structures in which its characters operate: Vought is still untouchable, the American government is still duplicitous, the criminal underworld is still full of Russians. There’s a rinse-and-repeat quality to both the heroes and the villains that means nothing much changes by the end of this season, as The Boys settles into the same cyclical narrative patterns as the cinematic universes it claims to be mocking. That American freedom is a myth and that the country’s gung ho ideology is built on propaganda and lies? Combine those decades of political awfulness with the concurrent superhero monoculture takeover of movies and TV, and certain patterns of stasis begin to emerge.

Jensen Ackles is here as Soldier Boy, a superhero who wasn't particularly heroic — but what really happened to the powerful supe?

Frenchie’s pulled into a car and taken to her, and she asks him to give up Cherie. He won’t do it and leaves, but as he walks away, she tells him to think about it. and behind her back, out of the view of the cameras, she clenches her fist. Before Annie called, Grace had been telling the Boys (after a bit of threatening from Butcher) about what happened with Soldier Boy. In ’84, she was stationed in Nicaragua as part of a cocaine-trafficking operation to fund Operation Charlie. When they were gearing up for a “major offensive,” the government decided to bring in Payback. Obviously, Payback wasn’t prepared to be in a place where the enemy could fire at any second, and “Swatto,” a supe with fly wings, gave away their position by, well, flying. Frenchie ( Tomer Capon) also has a run-in with a woman named “Little Nina” (Katia Winter). He has a past with her, and Cherie gets on her bad side for losing a drug shipment. Panicked, Starlight calls Hughie ( Jack Quaid) — who has gone to Grace Mallory with the rest of the Boys to hear what she has to say about Soldier Boy — and says she wants to stop being co-captain. In fact, the best thing about him might be his death, if it means taking down Homelander ( Antony Starr) is possible.

The Boys Season 3 opened with a mock film scene featuring Charlize Theron playing Stormfront. Here's how the Charlize Theron cameo came together.

The scene is satire within satire—The Boys itself a series parodying superhero and celebrity worship. Theron’s delivery is purposefully wooden, as is the rest of the cast’s acting. For viewers of The Boys, it equates the superhero with the celebrity. Of course, the new season of Amazon’s The Boys opens with a film parody. The film attempts to sanitize events of the previous season, when Homelander entered into a love affair with a literal Nazi and white supremacist stan. The target is Marvel. And DC. Of course, of course, of course.

The Crimson Countess is a parody on the Scarlet Witch. The Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden). Source: Prime Video. Is that the Scarlet ...

The biggest shocker of the Team Payback flashback was when young Black Noir (Fritzy-Klevans Destine) actually spoke! Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the dumbest Team Payback member of all? When they attack her in order to figure out the truth about what happened to Soldier Boy that day in Nicaragua, the Crimson Countess bolts. Swatto (Joel Labelle)! Young Grace (Sarah Swire) is irritated when Swatto goes for a joy flight without considering the ramifications. They accidentally triggered an attack on a U.S. military base in Nicaragua in the 1980s. So, why do we never hear about any of the members (except Soldier Boy) until Season 3 of The Boys?

The Boys season 3 begins with the long-awaited blockbuster hit of the summer. Release the Bourke Cut!

“Dawn of the 7 is a very sneaky way to reset all of the story actually,” Kripke says. It kind of gives you the opportunity to kind of do bad acting. In the real world events of The Boys season 2, Homelander was unbothered by Stormfront’s ideology and had every intention of living out his days with the powerful woman who properly appreciated his god-like status. The fictional film was apparently part of a Snyder Cut-like movement to “release the Bourke Cut,” a gag that Zack Snyder himself appears to have appreciated. Dawn of the 7 is an Avengers or Justice League-style superhero teamup film starring the superpowered members of Vought’s premier team. The Boys season 3 opens in a place where the show hasn’t dared tread before: the cinema.

This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 3. As we're fond of pointing out around here, no other show on television understands superhero culture ...

Mother’s Milk alleges and Grace confirms that the CIA sold all of that excess cocaine into minority neighborhoods in the U.S. to disrupt and destabilize them. - Operation Charly, or the reason Grace was in Nicaragua in the first place, is basically completely real. - Mother’s Milk calls out Grace for another unsavory part of her role in Nicaragua – the purchase of the Contra’s plentiful cocaine. Here are all the references to the “real world” that we spotted in The Boys season 3. Does this mean thatCharlize Theron is also a part of the MCU in The Boys‘ universe? There are still many references to the church and its veiled comparisons to Scientology though. Finally! Confirmation that Amazon exists in the Boys‘ universe. Good to know that Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner exists in The Boys. Is the existence of Amazon canon in The Boys universe? - Fictional director Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) had to reshoot the whole film after Stormfront’s true nature came to light. This season finds Homelander making good on Antony Starr’s promise to become a “homicidal maniac” and in the process the world that Vought created begins to resemble our own more closely than ever before. The Boys season 3 opens up with one hell of a homage.

It's Homelander's party, and he can go Nazis if he wants to. A recap of “The Only Man in the Sky,” episode two of the third season of 'The Boys' on Amazon ...

Could he actually develop some empathy for the supes he’s always thought of as inherently wrong? But it’s hard to know how Kimiko could’ve avoided the public violence, especially since it’s a Countess fireball that makes the biggest mess. Poking and prodding him with the suggestion that Soldier Boy routinely molested him, Butcher winds up provoking a gunfight that he barely escapes. He gets the information he wants — whatever happened to Soldier Boy happened during a mission in Nicaragua, working under none other than Grace Mallory! (Oh, and Soldier Boy did slap him around a little, but it never went further than that.) He tries to resist Butcher’s invitation back — he can’t abandon his family again — but we know it’s only a matter of time. She knows that he does want to be with his family, but he can’t be at peace when he still has unfinished business. After getting shot by Gunpowder (more on that later) and watching Ryan’s emotional stop-motion animation of Becca’s voice-mail, he realizes Grace Mallory might be right, it might be time to get out of the game like Mother’s Milk did. Thankfully, the fight ends with an honest admission: Hughie thought things were finally going his way, but the Neuman revelation has shown him how blind he was to the truth. But the couple’s fake fight is organic enough to morph into a real one, tied to Hughie’s awareness of his relative physical weakness. While Annie is preoccupied with the birthday boy, Hughie is too impatient — and too insecure about his reliance on his superhero girlfriend — to wait for her to investigate Neuman further. But as soon as he hears the news, he pivots from bored obligation to actively encouraging the woman to go through with the suicide. He pays a visit to the Red River Institute, a group home for the super-abled owned by Vought, where it turns out Neuman (and her latest victim, Tony) grew up.

While fans have been anticipating this date for the last two years, since the announcement of Jensen Ackles taking on the role, there have been several theories ...

While Soldier Boy could impact how the series moves forward, he could also have a lot to do with how certain characters’ stories continue to develop. Season 3 is an exploration of Soldier Boy but also how Vought operated in the early days of the company. The trailer for the series has given fans several clues into what the arc of Soldier Boy could be this season. With Soldier Boy breaking out from captivity, several other members may be alive, too, with glimpses of Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) and Gunpowder (Sean Patrick Flanery) in the trailer. It is possible that past connections could still be alive, giving Soldier Boy the chance to call in some favors and find new ways to interact in the world he’s just woken up in. Season 3 of The Boys is about to hit Amazon Prime, and the long-awaited arrival of the Captain America counterpart, Soldier Boy, is almost here.

The Boys' Claudia Doumit had chunks of her hair ripped out while filming fight scenes for season 3.

"I think she thought she was going to stand in front of a green screen and say a couple of lines and be done. And according to showrunner Eric Kripke, she had no idea just how big her appearance was going to be. As I recall, I left the set that day with just clumps of my hair missing, because there was so much blood, and we're very physical in the scene, and we're moving around," she laughed.

Showrunner Eric Kripke talked to us about how The Boys pulled off the Termite gag, and the Avengers Ant-Man/Thanos meme inspiration for the moment.

Just kind of the smell in the air.” And then you had like this British Invasion of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis, who made The Boys, and then they deconstruct and tear it apart, but rebuild it and pay homage to it and just start playing with the form? The scene includes an image of Termite jumping into the giant (from his point of view, at least) penis, and also a sequence where he is inside it. “There’s certainly a trend to deconstruct the superhero genre,” Kripke said. Unfortunately, Termite (who, it must be repeated, has been doing a ton of cocaine) sneezes while inside the penis, accidentally reverting to human size and exploding his partner’s bottom half in the process. And then hilariously, one of the writers [...] raises their hand and says, Did we do a butt explosion in season 1?

'The Boys' star Erin Moriarty talks about Starlight's new role within The Seven and that unexpected Starlight/Homelander moment in Episode 3.

Hughie is so well intentioned and loves her so much, but I don’t think anyone could possibly understand how uncomfortable and scary it is to be put in that position every single day, to be by Homelander’s side. How is that going to start to affect Hughie and Annie’s relationship? Exactly! He’d sooner kill the person threatening his power or die himself than give that up. She works in an environment where she’s viewed power as something that people take advantage of, and its power has existed in a really toxic way at Vought. But she looks at it as potentially being her chance to finally impart that change and do good within Vought that she’s been wanting to do and make certain decisions that could steer Vought in a better way. TVLINE As Homelander put it, if it’s released and he loses everything, then he has nothing to lose.

Blown away by Charlize Theron's cameo in season three of The Boys? You're not alone. Chace Crawford, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Karen Fukuhara and others weigh ...

Ackles, a newcomer to the Boys cast, had an equally funny reaction. Crawford, who plays superhero The Deep, revealed that he was equally shocked by Theron's participation, joking, "Whose favor did they have to call in for her?" The Oscar-winning actress appears in the opening scene of episode one as herself.

"The Boys" showrunner explains how they pulled off the Season 3 premiere's fatal penis accident scene and that big Charlize Theron cameo.

For Kripke, “Herogasm” isn’t just about the giant suphero orgy, anyways: “As much as we talk about all the shock and the crazy, I think ‘Herogasm’ works not because it’s a major superhero orgy, because that’s all really funny. But I think that episode really lands because, not only are there crazy moments, but there are many, many emotional moments.” “That is an 11-foot high, 20-foot long penis head that has a urethra, a tunnel in it, and built at great expense. The heart and soul with which she delivers it is so funny and stunning. “Even though it was very much sweetened by the effects, that is a practical penis,” Kripke said. As “The Boys” showrunner Eric Kripke previously promised Variety, within the first 15 minutes of the Season 3 premiere, a moment occurs that is “a thousand times crazier” than the whale scene: A superhero named Termite shrinks down and climbs into the urethra of his significant other in order to pleasure him from inside his penis. Even though that’s an insane moment, I think we continue to delve into the characters, dramatize what they’re going through in these shit-bird-insane-bananas moments, and, to me, luckily the shock of it just never quite wore off.” “Craig Rosenberg wrote the script and deserves most of the blame for it,” Kripke said. That’s the world of ‘The Boys.'” Within the first three episodes of Season 2, “The Boys” blew up a whale by having Butcher (Karl Urban) crash into it with a speedboat. And it was Craig who mounted that argument. And it was so funny.”

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke discusses how the most despicable character of the show was always destined to return in Season 3.

Even as Kripke said this was always the plan, it remains one of the more interesting surprises of a season that is pumped full of them. It shows how her bravado and snark were all a front for the ugliness that she always represented in her hateful ideology. It certainly provides narrative closure to her character while also adding another wrinkle to Homelander’s descent into even more depravity, as it is clear that he still is drawn to her even though he can’t admit it publicly. While it seemed like she may be dead after the events of the last season left her horribly injured, we now see that she is still very much alive. it was weird how sometimes people interpret things that you didn't intend because people would ask me all the time, 'Stormfront's dead, right?' Or, 'Could you bring back Stormfront? Isn't she dead?' And I'm like, 'She's not dead. Most central to this is the return of a significant character: Stormfront (Aya Cash).