The Boys Season 3 Will Explore The Vought Of The '60s, '70s, And '80s

At the end of the second season of Amazon Prime's "The Boys," we got a sneak peek into the history of Vought Enterprises and the creation of compound V, which turns normal people into superheroes. In season 3, which has finished production and should be hitting our screens sometime soon, we're apparently going to get a lot more background on Vought and its many poorly-behaved supes, including heroes from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. 

While the series has mostly riffed on current comic book properties so far, showrunner Eric Kripke recently told The Illuminerdi that fans can expect to see more about the heroes (and villains) of yesteryear when the series returns. 

When the folks at The Illuminerdi spoke with Kripke during the 2021 Saturn Awards, they asked him if fans had anything to look forward to in season 3. His response? There are loads of exciting new characters to get excited about:

"I mean all of them! I mean I think they all get amazing things to do. I mean season 3's fun because it's not just about Soldier Boy, but it's about the team he was a part of which is called Payback. And Laurie Holden plays Crimson Countess and there's a bunch of other heroes who are amazing. So, sort of seeing who was the Seven before the Seven. And what was life like for Vought? In the history of Vought what was it like in the '60s and '70s and '80s? To dig into the history of the world, not just the present has been a lot of fun."

In the new season, fans will be introduced to a whole bunch of new characters, most of them members of the superhero team Payback. The villainous Stormfront (Aya Cash), who joined the Seven in season 2, was a big part of Payback in the comics. At the end of season 2, it was revealed that she was the first superhero, Vought's wife, quite old, and a literal Nazi. Now we'll get to see some of her old comrades, including Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), who is a riff on Captain America and is one of the older superheroes in Vought's collection. 

About a month ago, Kripke told Variety that Soldier Boy was essentially "Homelander before Homelander." It's also looking like they're going to make Payback a superhero group that predates the Seven and was perhaps the precursor to it. This is a bit different than in the comics, where all of the members of Payback are superheroes who weren't allowed to join the Seven in the first place, so they did their own thing.

By looking at Vought's past and the supes who came before, maybe the Seven and the Boys can find their way to a peaceful future. 

Just kidding! This is "The Boys," so past and present are probably going to clash with very bloody results.