The Boys: Jensen Ackles to appear as Soldier Boy in Gen V spinoff series

Jensen Ackles joined The Boys last season to play Soldier Boy, America’s first and greatest superhero, and it sounds as though he’ll make an appearance in the upcoming spinoff series Gen V as well.

While speaking with fans during a Creation New Orleans convention (via Entertainment Weekly), Jensen Ackles revealed that his character of Soldier Boy will show up in Gen V. “Soldier Boy pops up for a brief moment in this new spin-off of The Boys,” Ackles said. “In fact, there’s a few cameos from the mothership that come into this spin-off. My little bit there was heavily [improvised].” Ackles added that The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke was on set with him for filming. “He and I were just, like, we were spitballing ideas and workshopping literally in between takes and coming up with a whole variety of takes,” Ackles said.

Gen V takes place “in America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (or supes) that is run by Vought International.” It will explore 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—with all the heart, satire, and raunch of The Boys.“

Eric Kripke has previously teased that Gen V would include a few crossovers with The Boys, both in terms of characters and events. “There’s definitely crossover, and we’re doing our best to design a universe that sees some of the issues and storylines in Season 3 hand off to the first season in Varsity,” Kripke said. “Like there’s a presidential campaign happening in the background of that season, and there’s certain things that are happening at that school that are both in reaction to Season 3 of The Boys. There’s Soldier Boy, etcetera, but also some new storylines that are happening in that season of the spinoff that we have to pick up and take into Season 4 of the show.” We don’t have an official release date for Gen V yet, but the spinoff series is expected to premiere on Prime Video sometime this year.