Based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, “The Boys”, since its premiere in 2019, has never shunned the shock and awe tactics rejected by traditional comic book adaptations. Cronenberg-esque head exploding, wrist shattering, gut tearing thrills are part of the fabric of the show that so many have come to love.
READ MORE: ‘The Boys’ Season 3 Trailer: Sex, Violence & Butch Gets Super Powers
After the arrival of the teaser trailer for season 3, we now have the official trailer, further signaling a continuation of this dark and violent aesthetic. This aesthetic, unique in the often sanitized comic book genre, is underpinned by its dark thematic content, with the central question of “The Boys” being; what would humans, with all their characteristic flaws, behave like if they could fly and were (broadly speaking) indestructible? Abhorrently, apparently, with sexual assault, rape, murder, and corruption among the many unpunished crimes of the elite supes.
In keeping with this, the origins of the superhero phenomenon, within the confines of the universe of “The Boys,” goes back to one of the darkest periods in human history. Season 2 already showed us the origins of Stormfront in Nazi Germany as the first recipient of Compound V. The introduction of Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy, an allied soldier who was subsequently injected with Compound V and transformed into a Captain America-esque super soldier, indicates a desire to explore the morally gray clouds from which Vought and the superhero programme emerged. As EW recently reported, showrunner Eric Kripke considers the story of Soldier Boy as a tool to ‘examine the history of supes in America’ and its parallels to the ‘political divisiveness in the present.’
With a recurring cast of Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Anthony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonzo, Chase Crawford, as well as Jensen Ackles, season 3 of “The Boys” arrives on Amazon Prime Video on June 3, 2022. Watch the official trailer below.