As of this week’s episode of Gen V, titled “Jumanji,” Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy is back in The Boys universe. Well, sort of. He’s — spoilers past this point — a figment of Cate’s (Maddie Phillips) imagination as the gang makes a dangerous trip through her mind. Only, in the original plan, it wasn’t Soldier Boy at all in Cate’s mind. It was Twilight star Taylor Lautner.
Here’s how it all goes down in the episode, first and foremost. Toward the beginning of Gen V Episode 6, Cate essentially sucks the rest of the cast into her head on a trip down memory lane. In it, Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Andre (Chance Perdomo), Jordan (Derek Luh/London Thor), and Dusty (Andy Walken) all end up discovering Cate’s tragic back-story. Before that, though, they run into Soldier Boy in The Woods.
He reveals that as a lonely teen, Cate first masturbated to both a poster and pillow of the 1940s “hero,” and even lives inside her fantasies now. Naturally, Soldier Boy fires off a series of rapid-fire euphemisms for masturbation that gross everyone else out. He also explains that her mental state is rapidly deteriorating, and if they don’t get out soon they’ll die. Then he dies. Or rather, the neurons that keep her imaginary friend memories explode, and he disappears from her mind. And that’s it for Soldier Boy!
But, as Gen V showrunner Michele Fazekas explained to TV Guide, it wasn’t supposed to be Soldier Boy at all in Cate’s memories. “The initial pitch was, we’re in Cate’s mind, and we want to see something from her when she was a kid — and it’s Taylor Lautner,” Fazekas said. “[The characters] are like, ‘Taylor Lautner, what are you doing here?'”
Lautner, unfortunately, turned down the gig, presumably so he could spend more time parkouring with his wife, who is also named Taylor Lautner.
That said? As enjoyable as it is to see Jensen Ackles again as Soldier Boy, it makes so much more sense to have someone from Twilight. Would Cate, who is probably in her twenties, be crushing on a racist superhero/propaganda figure from the 1940s? Or the hunky werewolf from a film franchise that debuted between 2008 and 2012, when Cate would have just been on the cusp of her teen years? Plus, there’s the fact that they’re in the woods, where most of Twilight took place!
Regardless, it ended up being Soldier Boy. And that’s one to flick the bean about.
Gen V streams Thursdays at 8 pm ET on Prime Video.
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