Just when we thought The Boys couldn’t have possibly topped itself anymore, the one and only Jensen Ackles entered the fray and delivered one of the deepest, most multi-faceted performances we’ve seen out of the series yet, breathing a weighty life into Soldier Boy.
The Supernatural star has made quite a name for himself in the superhero playground; Soldier Boy may be his best and most well-known work, but the actor has also loaned his voice talents to the likes of Jason Todd and Batman in a number of animated DC films, and previously portrayed one Jason Teague in season 4 of Smallville.
And while there’s quite a bit of discourse on how the superhero subgenre affects the overall health of entertainment industry, Ackles is all in on occupying this particular genre space. In an interview with Discussing Film, the actor divulged his love for the “rich” characters that superhero stories offer him the chance to play, also highlighting the rule-bending exploration that such stories tend to allow.
“Yeah, I’ve exhausted my time in that sandbox. No, I’m kidding. I would stay there for as long as they’ll let me. It’s a place I love to explore. The characters are so rich, and we’re not really bound by reality by any means. We can bend those rules in our favor, and I like that. I appreciate those slice-of-life films and television shows that are a conversation about what we deal with in reality, but I enjoy the escapism that the entertainment industry provides.”
If he enjoys bending the rules that much, then it’s no wonder he did such a fantastic job on The Boys, which has quite the reputation for taking the rules and ruthlessly snapping them over its knee. We’ll have to see how just involved Soldier Boy gets in season 4 and beyond following his dubious fate at the end of the last run, but one thing is for sure; whatever Ackles is serving, we’ll be taking it.