In addition to its many other charming qualities, Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys is a very chatty show. The show’s lead, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), is particularly loquacious, providing enough profanity-laced quotes to fill up a whole coffee table book. So when a new trailer arrives completely devoid of dialogue, you know the show is serious about the action therein.
Today Prime Video unveiled the first official trailer for The Boys season 3 in advance of the cast’s appearance at SXSW 2022. There isn’t a single line uttered in the trailer (other than one “yeah!”) but it speaks volumes all the same. Give it a look below to see what we mean.
Well, that’s a lot to unpack! Put aside for a moment the fact that that montage of season 3 clips includes no fewer than three exploding human bodies (and one exploding head for good measure), and focus on the character implications. It would appear that Billy Butcher, leader of The Boys and ultimate supe-hater, received some Compound-V. We can only assume if was against his will. In any case, the verbose bruiser is seen shooting lasers out of his eyes and absolutely waling on some poor bloke.
Notably, Butcher with glowing eyes is also the first official poster for The Boys season 3. Originally it just seemed like a bold style choice but it would appear his condition is quite literal.
The trailer is also fit-to-bursting with sneak peeks at some new characters. The most prominent and important is undoubtedly Jensen Ackles as the “original” supe Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy is essentially The Boys‘ Captain America as he was created via Compound-V in the 1940s amid the waning days World War II and the arrival of the nuclear age.
As seen in this trailer, Soldier Boy’s design hews quite closely to Cap’ as well. As does his arc seemingly. At trailer’s end, we catch a glimpse of what appears to be Soldier Boy arriving in the present day, bearded and bewildered. Soldier Boy’s Payback teammate Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) also makes a brief appearance doing some (what else?) people exploding.
The real action, however, comes from the show’s returning cast. A-Train appears to be starring in some sort of cynical Kylie-Jenner-Pepsi-style ad about joining a peaceful protest. The Deep engages in intercourse while staring at an octopus friend. Hughie gets his arm broken. Frenchie and Kimiko engage in an elaborate dance number.
Then there’s Homelander…oh Homelander. The Boys‘ demented Superman analogue and breakout character played by Antony Starr does make several appearances throughout, mostly to just do his usual supe thing of flying around and menacing people. He also, however, milks a cow. You may recall that Homelander has a fascination with milk, particularly unpasteurized milk straight from the teat. If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, you will not be able to comprehend the expression on Homelander’s face as he milks this cow. Get ready for it now:
Yeah, this season is going to be wild.