SPOILERS: This post contains details about The Boys, Season 5 episode ‘One-Shots’
It’s a Winchester family reunion on this week’s episode of The Boys, as creator Eric Kripke assembled the stars of his previous hit series Supernatural for some killer cameos.
Jensen Ackles, who stars as Soldier Boy on the Prime Video series and its upcoming offshoot Vought Rising, told Deadline there was a “minor mental adjustment” in working with Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins in a “new environment” from their 2005-’20 CW series.
“I mean, getting on set with those guys in any capacity is always gonna be familiar. It’s always gonna be something that feels normal and just comfortable. The kind of the odd thing was doing it in a new environment with different costumes, with different crew and different cast, and then kind of adjusting ourselves to that,” said Ackles, adding, “But look, we’re pros and that’s what we do, and we got there, I think.”
In this week’s episode ‘One-Shots’, Soldier Boy and Homelander (Antony Starr) visit The Seven alum Marathon Man (Padalecki) to obtain some V1, which will make Homelander immortal amid Billy Butcher’s (Karl Urban) plan to wipe out all Supes with a deadly virus.
At Marathon Man’s mega-mansion, the speedster is hosting a poker game with Malchemical (Collins), whose Supe power is emitting a toxic gas. Also in attendance at the bloody gathering are series EP Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Will Forte and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as heightened versions of themselves.
Misha Collins as Malchemical and Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy in ‘The Boys’
“What it all boiled down to was like, I’m playing this guy, and I felt comfortable in that suit enough to be able to work with somebody who I had worked with for 15 years, playing a different character,” explained Ackles. “So, I just kind of kept reminding myself to stay true to this particular character, and the suit helps me do that.”
The actor noted, “I mean, you gotta keep in mind too, Jared and I, and Misha, we played different versions of ourselves on Supernatural for 15 years. Maybe I’d be possessed by a demon or an angel, or Jared wouldn’t have a soul, or he was playing Lucifer. So, we were already pretty used to playing different versions of different characters with each other for a long time. So, it wasn’t that big of a stretch for us to have to pretend to be somebody other than what we used to, to play together. But when the cameras were off, it was right back to the old banter.”
And while The Boys debuts its series finale on May 20, Ackles is just getting started with Soldier Boy, reprising the character in the upcoming prequel Vought Rising, which comes to Prime Video in 2027.
Jared Padalecki as Marathon Man and Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy in ‘The Boys’
“It was exciting, and it was a little bit more challenging because I felt like I’d gotten to know modern day Soldier Boy pretty well and had him kind of dialed in. And then it kind of stripped a lot of that away to tell the story of how he was back then, before a lot of the shit had happened,” said Ackles, noting, “You’ll definitely see the modern day Soldier Boy, he’s in there. But you kind of get the sense of seeing why certain elements of his personality took over more.”
Read on about Jensen Ackles’ Supernatural reunion on this week’s episode of The Boys, as well as what’s in store for Vought Rising.
DEADLINE: Soldier Boy is such a fun, wild, off-the-cuff character. I’m curious, what was the wildest line that you had to say this season?
JENSEN ACKLES: I mean there were a few, and I’m thinking of one now. It hasn’t aired yet but it was basically a story about the Virgin Mary.
DEADLINE: I’ll keep an eye out for that one. Tell me about the way things develop this season with Homelander, considering the father-son connection, and Soldier Boy suddenly deciding to save him despite finding him incredibly weird.
ACKLES: I believe it shifted something in Soldier Boy a little bit of like, “OK, maybe he’s not a complete waste of space, and maybe there is something salvageable about this relationship.” I don’t think he’s convinced that there is. I think he’s questioning it now, whereas before he was like, “Fuck this guy. I don’t care if he lives or dies. In fact, I hope he dies cause he’s … a disappointment.” And he probably hates him because he’s a reflection of himself. We’ll find more out about that in Vought Rising. But I think that stress against that relationship was softened a bit in final scene in episode four, when we kind of see Homelander walk away from what could have been the end of Soldier Boy. I mean, it was funny as I asked Kripke, I was like, “Would the lasers actually kill Soldier Boy? Would that be something that could happen?” And I never got a full answer on that, but we assume in that moment that Soldier Boy’s like, “Just end it, take me out, I’m done. I’m done with this whole thing.” And the fact that Homelander couldn’t or wouldn’t, I think might have shifted something in his view of their relationship, to give him maybe some motivation of sticking with it a little longer and kind of seeing where this goes.
Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy in ‘The Boys’
DEADLINE: That makes sense. Soldier Boy is teetering on anti-hero this season. I don’t know what you can tease, but is he gonna come through for The Boys at all?
ACKLES: I mean, I don’t know if I can say too much about where he ends up, but I will say that the relationship between him and Homelander is complicated, and the complication doesn’t necessarily go away. So, how they navigate it moving forward is kind of what becomes the interesting thing.
DEADLINE: This week’s episode was really awesome with of the Supernatural reunion. What was it like reuniting with those guys as these wildly different characters?
ACKLES: I mean, getting on set with those guys in any capacity is always gonna be familiar. It’s always gonna be something that feels normal and just comfortable. The kind of the odd thing was doing it in a new environment with different costumes, with different crew and different cast, and then kind of adjusting ourselves to that. We didn’t have to adjust ourselves for each other, because we know each other so well, so it was like, “OK, we’ve now found ourselves in a different boat, who’s gonna do what? How are we gonna do this?” And so I think there was a little bit of some minor kind of mental adjustment that was necessary to perform the way we needed to, as opposed to just diving back into old familiar banter. But look, we’re pros and that’s what we do, and we got there, I think.
DEADLINE: Was it like weirdly meta killing Jared and Misha in that one scene?
ACKLES: What it all boiled down to was like, I’m playing this guy, and I felt comfortable in that suit enough to be able to work with somebody who I had worked with for 15 years, playing a different character. So, I just kind of kept reminding myself to stay true to this particular character, and the suit helps me do that. As soon as I put on that suit on, I’m like, “Well, there’s nobody else I could be in this thing.” And so, it was fun for me to be able to perform like that. With my friends, they got to do their thing along with me while I was doing something totally different. I mean, you gotta keep in mind too, Jared and I, and Misha, we played different versions of ourselves on Supernatural for 15 years. Maybe I’d be possessed by a demon or an angel, or Jared wouldn’t have a soul, or he was playing Lucifer. So, we were already pretty used to playing different versions of different characters with each other for a long time. So, it wasn’t that big of a stretch for us to have to pretend to be somebody other than what we used to, to play together. But when the cameras were off, it was right back to the old banter.
Antony Starr as Homelander and Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy in ‘The Boys’
DEADLINE: And what was it like working with Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani and Christopher Mintz-Plasse for this week’s episode?
ACKLES: Amazing! All of those guys are just absolute pros. I will say that I was happy when they were doing a lot of their stuff, that I was not on camera, because I was having a hard time keeping a straight face. There was a lot of improv happening. I knew what was written, and then seeing what they were doing to get the point across in a different way—there were a lot of takes where they just let them go. They just let them play and let them say whatever the hell they wanted to, and my god, those guys, their brains work at a different frequency.
DEADLINE: Nice. That was a funny scene. I know this journey isn’t over for you yet, but what was it like being there for The Boys finale? Was that emotional for you and the cast?
ACKLES: I mean, it’s gonna be emotional when any show comes to the end of its run. I still stick by it, I’ve always said that I’m a guest in their house, the house that The Boys and the Supes built. I was very fortunate to come in and get to play for two full seasons. So, I always kind of respected my slightly outsider position, and when they came to the end of the run, I was like, “You guys, you’ve been at it for all five seasons and, and it took 8+ years or whatever to do all those seasons. I will happily stand by and applaud you guys for the amazing accomplishment that you built.” I was happy to be just a part of it.
Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Will Forte in ‘The Boys’
DEADLINE: Well, I’m really excited for Vought Rising as well, and I’m curious if you can tell me what was it like getting to explore more of Soldier Boy’s origin and step into a different era for the whole Vought universe?
ACKLES: It was exciting, and it was a little bit more challenging because I felt like I’d gotten to know modern day Soldier Boy pretty well and had him kind of dialed in. And then it kind of stripped a lot of that away to tell the story of how he was back then, before a lot of the shit had happened. But also, while that stuff is happening when we see him in The Boys, this is the past of all of that stuff, and it’s how that kind of shaped his life and shaped who he was and his ideology of himself and of the world. But you kind of have to strip all that away because he’s now going through it, so it’s the heartache and the breakup and the experience that he’s having in V Rising that we then understand why he became who he became. So, it was a little bit different. It was a little trickier to get some footing in that character but Paul Grellong, who ran the show, did an incredible job of writing these characters out, these storylines, and you’ll definitely see the modern day Soldier Boy, he’s in there. But you kind of get the sense of seeing why certain elements of his personality took over more.
