'Supernatural' Alum Joins Former Co-Star Jensen Ackles on 'The Boys'
Jensen Ackles made a huge impression on fans of The Boys, starring as Soldier Boy in Season 3 of the Prime Video dark action-dramedy series, and now another Supernatural alum is joining him in the show. It's been revealed that Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played Ackles' on-screen father in Supernatural, has been cast in The Boys Season 4. At this time, details about Morgan's character are being kept under wraps, but he is said to be playing a recurring character.
The Boys is adapted from a comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. It stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capon and Karen Fukuhara as a group of human vigilantes — The Boys — who take on the corporate superheroes of Vought International. The hero team, known as the Seven, is portrayed by Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Chace Crawford, Jessie T. Usher, and Nathan Mitchell. The Boys Season 3 debuted on June 3, with all episodes — as well as Seasons 1 and 2 — now available to stream.
Ahead of the new season, The Boys creator and showrunner, Eric Kripke, teased what was to come in the new episodes, saying that it would "dig" into some even more controversial storylines. During an interview with Vanity Fair, Kripke spoke about the Amazon Prime Video show's direction for the new season, specifically focusing on Soldier Boy, the new character played by Ackles. "Season 3 delves a lot more into the history of how we got here through this character of Soldier Boy," Kripke explained.
The creator went on to share, "We were able to dig into both the history of the country and also really look at toxic masculinity, and masculine roles, and what a s—show that's overall caused. This whole f—ing independent, Marlboro man thing." Kripke, who created Supernatural, shared that even though he'd worked alongside Ackles for 15 years on the CW show, it took him a while to realize that Soldier Boy was right in front of him all along. "We had written Soldier Boy long before I cast Jensen. The majority of the guys we were looking at for that part were actually quite older than Jensen," he said. "Because it's a World War II hero."
Kripke then went on to share the story of how he finally thought to bring Ackles on board. He shared, "[Jensen] happened to call me and we were just chatting and I'm like, 'Well I'm prepping season three of the show, and I have this character Soldier Boy, and it was a real pain to cast, and I haven't really found anyone. Hey, wait a minute, do you want to do it?' I sent him the script, and he's like, 'Oh my God, I totally want to do this.'"