The question of when Amazonโs Emmy-nominated superhero satire would make like a Thin Lizzy song and return to streaming queues has been on the lips of just about everyone for the past two years. Thankfully, the speculation can now end. The Boys season 3 has a confirmed release date of June 3rd, 2022.
Prior to this latest announcement, series lead Karl Urban โ who portrays the gruff-yet-loveable former SAS operator, William โBillyโ Butcher โ offered the following status update via Instagram after production officially concluded in Toronto, Ontario for what promises to be three times as bloody as season 2:
โAnd thatโs a wrap on The Boys season 3,โ writes the New Zealand dramatic talent.
โMassive thanks to our brilliant cast and crew for all the blood, [sweat, and tears] โ and also to everyone involved in the production at Amazon Prime Video and Sony Pictures TV for working so hard to keep us all COVID safe.โ
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โAnd of course massive thanks to [series creator Eric Kripke] for delivering a next-level bat shit crazy good season 3. I canโt wait for yโall to see it. Be safe yโall.โ
Elsewhere, fellow cast members Jack Quaid (Hughie Campbell), Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female), and Erin Moriarty (Annie January / Starlight) celebrated the occasion in a similar fashion โ taking to the latterโs Instagram with the following caption:
โA labour of love, blood, sweat, tears, tequila, laughs, nose swabs, and so many ?s,โ writes Erin Moriarty.
โThere is no group I would rather go through it all with. WRAPPEDIGGITY on season 3 of The Boys.โ
So what can we expect from the long-awaited follow-up? The two key aspects will involve the introduction of a precursor to Antony Starrโs Homelander known as Soldier Boy โ portrayed by Supernatural alum Jensen Ackles โ and an extremely R-rated storyline, bordering on the X-rated, infamously known as โHerogasm.โ
Inspired by Captain America, Soldier Boy is a legacy mantle that has seen three different iterations in the original graphic novels written by Garthe Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson. The version which Jensen Ackles will portray in The Boys season 3 appears to be the first: among the first successful applications of Dr Voughtโs Compound V, World War II veteran famed for killing German soldiers by the dozens, and the leader of a team preceding The Seven, Payback.
Armed with a distinctive shield โ not entirely unlike his Marvel counterpart โ it has been hinted that Soldier Boy will be โmuch stronger, darker, and more menacing supeโ than the one portrayed in the original source material. Homelander before Homelander with the same ego and ambition, Eric Kripke has previously stated.
โSoldier Boy is the original badass,โ explains costume designer Laura Jean Shannon.
โOur goal was to highlight a bygone era of overt masculinity and grit. With that pedigree, we dove headfirst into baking in an all-American quality grounded in a military soldierโs practicality with a heavy dose of old school cowboy swagger.โ
โWe knew that the actor had to have Steve McQueen looks and chops with a John Wayne attitude โ luckily, Jensen Ackles embodies all of that.โ
โIt took six months but the experience surpassed Jensenโs expectations,โ says Eric Kripke.
โAnd if you think the photos are cool, just wait till you see Jensen in action.โ
โEvery dent, every scratch, every mark tells a story,โ writes Jensen Ackles, also via Instagram (sensing a pattern?).
โA story that ends with me winning.โ
But youโd be mistaken if you thought the buck ended with the introduction of Acklesโ character.
โSeason 3โs fun because itโs not just about Soldier Boyโฆ itโs about the team he was a part of which is called Payback,โ adds Eric Kripke.
โAnd Laurie Holden plays Crimson Countess and thereโs a bunch of other heroes who are amazing. So sort of seeing who was The Seven before The Seven.โ
โAnd what was life like for Vought? In the history of Vought, what was it like in the 60s and 70s and 80s? To dig into the history of the world, not just the present has been a lot of fun.โ
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Last year, Eric Kripke confirmed The Boys season 3 would be tackling โHerogasmโ, slated for the sixth episode of season 3, Kripke announced the wildly NSFW event via Twitter accompanied by a picture of the script written by Jessica Chou in exceedingly appropriate fashion.
โFrom day one, everyone dared me to make this episode,โ writes Kripke.
โChallenge met, motherfuckers.โ
The story arc depicts Billy Butcher, Hughie Campbell, Motherโs Milk (portrayed by Laz Alonso), and Frenchie (portrayed Tomer Capon) sneaking into a secret annual party hosted by Vought โ the eponymous โHerogasmโ event. As briefly alluded to in the pilot episodeโs club scene, this raunchy and off-the-rails affair involves an entire weekend of superhero orgies, drug use, and general debauchery on a secluded island resort, away from the publicโs prying eyes.
Considering what weโve seen already, ranging from head-crushing oral sex, supe with a prehensile extendo penis, as well as The Sevenโs leader Homelander and his breast milk fetish/perennial mummy issuesโฆ one can only imagine the levels of debauchery Kripke has in store for us. Amazonโs iteration of The Boys may not have been a completely faithful adaptation thus far, but it sounds as though season 3 will ensure some core elements stay the course (guess weโll find out come the mid-2022 release date).
Ahead of The Boys season 2 premiering back in 2020, Amazon was happy enough with the showโs momentum to lock in an early renewal order for season 3; hence why theyโve eschewed any hang-up about playing things safe to give Kripke & Co carte blanche. Additionally, an accompanying after-show hosted by Aishia Tyler was also announced.
โEric Kripke and the incredible cast of The Boys continue to deliver a wild and action-packed series full of surprises and canโt-miss moments that have made the series a global hit,โ says Vernon Sanders, Co-Head of Television at Amazon Studios.
โWe couldnโt be more excited to see where Eric takes The Boys and the supes in season 3, and to have Aisha Tyler join The Boys family as the host of Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys.โ
A few months later, in light of data that indicated The Boys season 2 had been the most-watched global launch of an Amazon original series ever, growing in audience by a considerable +89% since the first season, Amazon decided itโd be in their best interest to pre-emptively give an R-rated spin-off about superhero college the greenlight.
RELATED: โThe Boysโ Spin-Off Series About Superhero College Will Be R-Rated
According to Variety, hereโs what weโre in for:
The spin-off is set at Americaโs only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (or โsupesโ) that is run by Vought International. It is described as an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. Part college show, part Hunger Games โ with all the heart, satire, and raunch of The Boys.
The Boys writer and executive producer โ Craig Rosenberg โ will serve as showrunner as well as an executive producer once again for this spin-off. Rosenberg is currently in the process of penning the pilot script. Kripke, on the other hand, has also signed on as an executive producer, alongside Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver.
Once again, The Boys season 3 now has a June 3rd of 2022 release date โ better fire up those Amazon Prime Video subscriptions.
