The Boys season 3 release date: Cast, spoilers and latest news
Brace yourselves – it could get messy.
It's been a long wait but The Boys are finally back in town, as season 3 arrives on Amazon Prime Video this week.
The first two seasons of the raucous superhero show, starring the likes of Antony Starr, Jack Quaid and Erin Moriarty, were a huge hit and season 3 promises to be bigger, better and even more depraved.
The new episodes are likely to cause a stir, with Billy Butcher actor Karl Urban promising scenes that viewers are unlikely to forget in a hurry.
“I’ve only seen some rough stuff, so I haven’t seen its, um, full glory,” Urban told The Guardian. “But there are things about season 3 that, once you’ve seen them, you will never unsee them.”
He added: “Jensen [Ackles] walked on set one day when they were shooting Herogasm. He turned to one of the cameramen and said, ‘Hey, buddy, how’s it going?’ The cameraman has this thousand-yard stare and goes, ‘Dude, I’ve seen some s**t.’”
A previous trailer for the new season teased the chaos to come thanks to a new formula enabling individuals to turn into a superhero for 24 hours.
It also gave viewers a first proper look at Supernatural favourite Jensen Ackles as new recruit Solider Boy, who joins the cast along with Laurie Holden (Crimson Countess), Katia Winter (Little Nina) and Miles Gaston Villanueva (Supersonic).
So, after The Boys season 2 turned out to be such a corker, where will the series go next? And when will the upcoming season land on Prime Video? Read on for all you need to know about The Boys season 3.
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The Boys season 3 release date
The Boys season 3 will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 3rd June 2022, it has been confirmed. You can sign up for Prime Video with a 30-day free trial and pay £7.99 a month after that.
The season will once again run for a total of eight episodes, with the first three episodes premiering together on the launch date and the following five episodes being released each Friday for the following five weeks.
Read more on the season 3 release schedule to make sure you're fully up to speed.
This means that the season finale will therefore be released on the streaming service on Friday 4th July 2022. Exciting stuff.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical release date
The Boys fans can whet their appetites with The Boys Presents: Diabolical, an animated offshoot of the superhero series.
The spin-off animated series, which revealed the unseen stories within The Boys universe, debuted on 4th March 2022.
It featured eight 12 to 14-minute episodes.
The Boys season 3 trailer
The first teaser trailer for The Boys season 3 amusingly decides to forgo any dialogue in exchange for teasing some of the shocking moments to come in the upcoming episodes. Watch below – but be warned, it's NSFW.
Prime Video had previously released a brief scene showing Anthony Starr’s Homelander growing increasingly irritated while having his picture taken for his overlords at Vought. Watch below:
As detailed above, a second full trailer also landed ahead of The Boys' season 3 release date. Watch below:
The Boys season 3 cast
The confirmed cast returning for the third season of The Boys are as follows.
- Karl Urban as William "Billy" Butcher
- Jack Quaid as Hugh "Hughie" Campbell Jr.
- Antony Starr as Homelander/John
- Erin Moriarty as Starlight/Annie January
- Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve/Maggie Shaw
- Jessie T. Usher as A-Train/Reggie Franklin
- Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk/Marvin T. Milk
- Chace Crawford as The Deep/Kevin Moskowitz
- Tomer Capon as Frenchie/Serge
- Karen Fukuhara as The Female/Kimiko Miyashiro
- Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir
- Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
- Claudia Doumit as Victoria "Vic" Neuman
Meanwhile, the following cast members have joined the series as new characters.
- Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
- Katia Winter as Little Nina
- Miles Gaston Villanueva as Supersonic
- Sean Patrick Flanery as Gunpowder
- Nick Wechsler as Blue Hawk
- Laurie Holden as Crimson Countess
- Frances Turner as Monique
- Kristin Booth and Jack Doolan as The Twins a.k.a. Tessa and Tommy
A big signing for season three is Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles, who’ll be playing a Captain America-like superhero for the new episodes named Soldier Boy.
“When I was a child, I had a crazy, impossible dream — to provide Jensen Ackles with gainful employment,” showrunner Eric Kripke, who previously worked with Ackles on Supernatural, said in a statement.
“I’m happy to say that dream has come true. Jensen is an amazing actor, an even better person, smells like warm chocolate chip cookies, and I consider him a brother."
Kripke continued: "As Soldier Boy, the very first superhero, he’ll bring so much humour, pathos, and danger to the role. I can’t wait to be on set with him again, and bring a bit of Supernatural to The Boys.”
It's a Supernatural reunion all round as well as Jensen Ackles, a number of writers and producers from the hit fantasy show will be joining The Boys Season three, including executive producer Meredith Glynn, writer David Reed, and co-executive producer Jim Michaels.
Amazon also recently released a slick photo of Supernatural star Jensen Ackles in his much-anticipated new role as Soldier Boy, the first official superhero created by sinister corporation Vought International.
A twisted version of Marvel's Captain America, Soldier Boy has been dubbed as the company's "Homelander before Homelander" by showrunner Eric Kripke, and has a murky history in the source material.
Ackles can be seen in full costume, with designer Laura Jean Shannon revealing that the look was partly inspired by the personas of legendary American actors Steve McQueen and John Wayne.
“Soldier Boy is the original bad ass. Our goal was to highlight a bygone era of overt masculinity and grit," she said. "With that pedigree we dove headfirst into baking in an all-American quality grounded in a military soldier’s practicality with a heavy dose of old school cowboy swagger.
"We knew that the actor had to have Steve McQueen looks and chops with a John Wayne attitude, luckily Jensen Ackles embodies all of that.”
Ackles isn't the only Supernatural alum that creator Kripke is teaming up with on The Boys season three, as it also enlists executive producers Meredith Glynn and David Reed as well as co-executive producer Jim Michaels.
Together, they will be crafting a superhero story that promises to be suitably diabolical, with co-star Laz Alonso revealing to Collider that the show will be bloodier than ever before when it returns.
"I was talking to the head makeup artist and she's in charge of ordering the blood — that's one of her many jobs," he said. "I don't think they used over a gallon of blood in season two, believe it or not. Season three: we're already at three and a half gallons of blood. So that should give you a little indication of where it's going."
The Walking Dead actress Laurie Holden has also been cast in a recurring role for season three of The Boys.
The Americans star, who played former lawyer Andrea in the first three series of AMC's post-apocalyptic zombie drama, will be bringing superhero Crimson Countess to life, Variety reports.
Holden joins recently announced cast members Sean Patrick Flanery as Gunpowder, Miles Gaston Villanueva as Supersonic, and Nick Wechsler as Blue Hawk.
There have also been rumours that The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan could make an appearance, but apparently this could depend on ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
"We’ve been texting back and forth about trying to figure it out," Kripke told RadioTimes.com and other press.
"I will caution everybody that COVID could really screw that up, because he is a regular on another show.
"He is on The Walking Dead, so he could only come up for a couple of days. And if there’s still a two-week quarantine between Canada and the United States, that renders that impossible.
"So, of the many things COVID is screwing up in this world, a Jeffrey Dean Morgan role might be one of them. But if the quarantine is removed and a couple of things break our way, then yeah, we’ll try to figure it out."
Returning cast will include Karl Urban (Billy Butcher), Jack Quaid (Hughie), Tomer Kapon (Frenchie) Erin Moriarty (Starlight), Antony Starr (Homelander), Chace Crawford (The Deep), Dominique McElligott (Queen Maeve), Laz Alonso (Mother's Milk), Jessie T Usher (A-Train), Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko) and Giancarlo Esposito (Stan Edgar) among others.
McElligott discussed Queen Maeve's season two arc in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: "I think it's really encouraging her to take action and there's no going back now. I think for Maeve, because Homelander is such a threat, there's no going back. She's dealing with a narcissistic sociopath, so good luck to her. I have no idea what's going to happen."
Recurring stars Claudia Doumit (who plays shock baddie Congresswoman Neuman in season two) and Colby Minifie (who plays publicist Ashley Barrett) have both been promoted to series regulars for new episodes, suggesting that both these figures will have big storylines going forward.
Meanwhile, Katia Winter (Dexter) has been cast as Russian mob boss Little Nina, who will be involved in the creation of even more "supes" using an inferior recreation of the potent Compound V.
The Boys star Aya Cash has revealed she won’t reprise her role of Klara Risinger, aka Stormfront, in the upcoming third season.
"The Boys comes out on June 3 and I'll be watching with the rest of you guys, unfortunately. That's my update," she told Metacritic, making clear she won't be on screen.
It's unclear whether Cameron Crovetti’s Ryan will return.
The Boys season 3 spoilers
The Boys star Jack Quaid has told Inverse that "no one is okay" in season 3, which should come as no surprise given the dramatic climax of the second instalment.
Some clues from the season two finale could give us a hint about where The Boys’ story will go next, with Hughie (Quaid) joining the campaign of mysterious congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) after her true nature was revealed.
“Similarly, there is a corrupt politician in the books named Vic Neuman. And through him, they kind of dig into some of the seedier sides of politics,” Kripke told Collider.
“And although we have a very different character, I think we’re signalling that we also have a corrupt politician who is going to lead us into some of the seedier sides of politics as the show proceeds.”
The series is also set to explore the past of evil corporation Vought through the lens of Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy and his superhero team Payback, a riff on the Avengers (hence the name).
"One of the things I love most about the world in [The Boys] comic books isn't just how fleshed out it is, but the history of it. It goes back 60, 70 years and it's just as fleshed out as it is today," Kripke told EW.
"One of the reasons that we're getting into Soldier Boy [in season 3] and that team, Payback, is we're interested in exploring a little bit of how we got here. Through the history of the supes, we can tell a little bit about the history of America and how we ended up in the current fraught position that we're in. Soldier Boy gives us an opportunity to do that.
Elsewhere, Antony Starr's Homelander is less stable than ever while Butcher has been recruited to join an official hero-monitoring team backed by the CIA, adding new legitimacy to his violent crusade.
“There are two words that Eric has said to me about season three,” Starr told Collider. “His description for Homelander Season three was, ‘Two words, homicidal maniac.’ That’s all I know.”
The first photo released of season three was a statue of the iconic supervillain, which Homelander would be glad to know focuses on a, um, certain area.
Starr continued to tell Collider: "I just feel like his identity is so bizarrely and dysfunctionally twisted up in the corporate identity of Homelander. He wouldn’t know who he is without that costume, without that flag, and without that public persona and identity.
"It’s a form of skin to him. I don’t know what he would wear. I’ve been asked, 'Will he ever take the suit off?,' and I’m like, 'Well, you tell me what he would wear because I can’t imagine Homelander in civilian clothes. I really can’t.'"
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And Kripke has also suggested that season three may be inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, albeit indirectly.
“I can tell you that season three, without being specifically about COVID, we’re having a lot of conversation about government response to COVID here in the States,” he told us.
“And my guess is you’ll see that metaphorically show up one way or another in season three.
“It’s a fortunate opportunity for me to have a show where I can talk about the world and I have a place to put all my frustration.”
And generally speaking, Kripke says fans should expect the show to go even bigger and more outrageous for season three – and after seeing the “Love Sausage” in season two, that’s already hard to picture.
“Is there anything we won’t touch? No, no,” he said.
“Amazon, to their credit, has given us a lot of rope to hang ourselves with and we have every intention of taking it as far as we can.”
We can hardly wait to see how far they’ll go – though we already know that the third season will tackle the Herogasm storyline, which involves an alien invasion being used as a front for a wild orgy. Seriously.
You can watch series 1 & 2 of The Boys on Amazon Prime Video. You can sign up for your 30-day free trial and pay £7.99 a month after that. Want something else to watch? Check out our guide to the best Amazon Prime series or have a look at our full TV Guide.
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