The trailer for The Boys Season 4 dropped this past weekend (May 3), and with it, speculation has hyped up about what will happen in the upcoming season. We know Supernatural alum Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be showing up in a mystery role (that isn’t much of a mystery). But what about another Supernatural alum? Will Jensen Ackles be in The Boys Season 4, reprising his role as Soldier Boy? The answer is: yes, probably.
To take a step back since it’s been a little while, Ackles was introduced in Season 3 as Soldier Boy, The Boys universe’s version of Captain America. He cursed, was racist, did a ton of drugs… And also turned out to be Homelander’s (Antony Starr) father. Oh, and due to some Russian experimentation, beyond your regular super-strength, durability, and speed, he also now tends to explode when his emotions rage out of control. So in the Season 3 finale, “The Instant White-Hot Wild,” our good guys and bad guys teamed up to take him down. And ultimately, Soldier Boy was put into cryonic sleep by the season’s end, and into the care of Grace Mallory (Laila Robins).
That wasn’t the last time we the viewers saw Soldier Boy, though. Ackles reprised the role in Gen V Episode 6, “Jumanji.” However, this was inside Cate’s (Maddie Phillips) head… She had a crush, to put it lightly, on Soldier Boy growing up. So when the rest of the characters were trapped in her mind, he showed up briefly to guide them through the mindscape, before getting fried by a bolt of mind-lightning.
Jensen Ackles Spotted Wearing The Boys Season 4 Crew Hat
That’s all well and good, but what about The Boys Season 4? Again, the answer is probably, and there’s some evidence for this. Specifically, while playing golf during this year’s Sony Open on January 10, 2024, Ackles was spotted wearing a The Boys Season 4 crew hat. Intrepid fans noticed the hat during reporting from KHON2, a Hawaii news station based in Honolulu. And it seems to be official, too. Another angle on the hat shows it’s for Brand X Stunts, who do indeed do stunts for The Boys. And with The Boys Season 4 having completed production months earlier in April 2023, it’s entirely reasonable Ackles got his hat on set.
Look, The Boys EP Eric Kripke is friends with Jensen Ackles, so he could certainly have gifted him a hat. However, Kripke also noted that he plans on bringing Ackles back at some point in the future. “The old TV adage is like, never kill anyone unless you really, really have to. Never close a door, open a window,” Kripke said in an interview with EW. “We’ll all have to wait and see, but I can’t imagine the series ending without Soldier Boy making another appearance.”
That all said The Boys Season 4 has a lot of fish to fry with new characters, an election year, and a Supe virus taken from Gen V — as well as some Gen V characters making their way over to the mothership series. Throwing Soldier Boy into the mix might complicate things. And to that end — possible The Boys Season 4 spoiler past this point — a Reddit thread on the subject notes the rumor that he’ll only show up, in cryostasis, for about 45-60 seconds in the season finale.
While that’s extremely rumory, it also seems like exactly the sort of thing The Boys would do to tee up Season 5… Which hasn’t officially been announced, but seems all but likely to be heading into production soon, if not already secretly filming.
So will Jensen Ackles return in The Boys Season 4? We’ll have to wait until the show premieres to really find out. But all evidence points to Ackles popping up, in some form.
The Boys Season 4 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The Boys season 4 will officially premiere on Prime Video on Thursday, June 13 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. The season will be eight episodes long, with three dropping on premiere day.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Boys Season 4, with expected premiere dates:
- Thursday, June 13, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 1 – “Department of Dirty Tricks”
- Thursday, June 13, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 2 – “Life Among the Septics”
- Thursday, June 13, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 3 – “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here”
- Thursday, June 20, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 4 – “Wisdom of the Ages”
- Thursday, June 27, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 5 – “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son”
- Thursday, July 4, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 6 – “Dirty Business”
- Thursday, July 11, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 7 – “The Insider”
- Thursday, July 18, 2024: The Boys, Season 4, Episode 8 – “Assassination Run” *Season Finale*
