Will Jensen Ackles return as Soldier Boy for The Boys season 4?

By Huw Fullerton

Published: Friday, 08 July 2022 at 12:00 am

**Spoiler warning for The Boys season 3**

The third season of The Boys has finally concluded with a bang and quite a few whimpers, with Homelander (Antony Starr) apparently triumphant as The Boys turned on their new ally Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).

As the big guest star this season, Ackles has received a lot of attention over the last few weeks – but after watching the finale, fans might be wondering whether this is the last we’ll see of his character.

So will Jensen Ackles and Soldier Boy return for the next season? We break down the possibilities below, but look out – we’ll be delving in spoilers from the finale, so click away if you’ve not had a chance to watch it yet.

Will Jensen Ackles return as Soldier Boy for The Boys season 4?

In the finale, we see Soldier Boy turn on his “son” Homelander out of disgust at his weakness, finally enacting Butcher’s (Karl Urban) plan. But things go sideways when he also attacks Homelander’s son, Ryan, leading Butcher, Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and the rest of The Boys to take him down instead.

At the close of the episode, after an attempt to go nuclear saw Maeve (Dominique McElligott) tackle him out of a building, it appears Soldier Boy is back under lock and key. We see Grace Mallory (Laila Robbins) watching on grim-faced as he’s placed back into a stasis chamber, drugged with the nerve agent Novichok.

So basically, it could go either way. Soldier Boy might remain locked away off-screen for the rest of the series, or he could be broken out in the very next episode. He’s not dead, just locked up – and while this does give the show’s writing team the option to keep him out of the action, they could also bring him back at any point.