The Boys Season 5 Trailer Teases Soldier Boy's Controversial Comic Storyline

The trailer for The Boys’ fifth and final season contains a sly nod to Soldier Boy’s controversial comic book storyline involving a certain carnal act with Homelander. Amazon has dropped a full trailer for The Boys season 5 as it gets ready to wrap up its smash-hit superhero satire, and it promises to be a truly climactic closing chapter.

Early on in the trailer, we see Billy Butcher assembling the Boys in a last-ditch effort to release their pesky virus and wipe out every single supe on the planet. It’s a suitably high-stakes culmination of what the series has been building to since the beginning. Butcher’s quest to avenge his wife and kill Homelander is finally coming to a head.

Aside from teasing the final showdown between the Boys and the Seven, this trailer includes a reference to one of the comics’ most polarizing storylines. About midway through the trailer, Homelander goes to the cryo chamber where he’s keeping Soldier Boy and thaws him out. Shortly thereafter, we get a particularly NSFW Easter egg.

The Boys Season 5 Acknowledges Homelander & Soldier Boy's Comic Story

After Homelander has thawed out Soldier Boy, we see a disheveled Soldier Boy sitting on Homelander’s bed, asking him if he wants to have sex with him and do “an incest thing.” Homelander insists it’s not sexual, but this is a callback to a very sexual storyline from the comics.

In the comics, Homelander forces Soldier Boy to “audition” for Herogasm every year by sleeping with him. Soldier Boy has to prove his sexual prowess before Homelander will allow him to join the supe orgy, and he never lets him pass the audition. It’s a demented power play, but it didn’t seem like the TV show would ever use this storyline.

Since the TV show has revealed that Soldier Boy is Homelander’s biological father, I didn’t think it would adapt their sexual relationship for the screen. Whether season 5 is going to have a sex scene between Homelander and Soldier Boy, the trailer confirms that they are sleeping together in the same bed. It could easily still escalate to something sexual.

Incest doesn’t seem like a line that The Boys wouldn’t be willing to cross, because there doesn’t seem to be any line that The Boys isn’t willing to cross. We’ve seen all kinds of disgusting sights, and watched all kinds of taboo scenarios play out in both The Boys and its spinoff, Gen V. Homelander claims he’s not sexually attracted to Soldier Boy, but we saw his relationship with his mother figure.

The costuming makes it look like the aftermath of a one-night stand. Soldier Boy is sitting on the edge of Homelander’s bed, wearing an oversized t-shirt that he likely borrowed from Homelander, with no pants on. The TV show might be adapting their sexual relationship for the screen after all (but it probably won’t have anything to do with Herogasm — that ship has sailed).

Soldier Boy Is A Much Better Character In Prime Video's TV Series

The version of Soldier Boy adapted for The Boys TV show is a much more compelling and interesting character than the one we saw in the comics. Thanks to Jensen Ackles’ natural charisma, the Homelander dad twist, and a healthy dose of trauma, the TV show has elevated an underdeveloped comic character into one of the standouts of the sprawling ensemble.

This is a pattern across the board. Garth Ennis’ The Boys comics have a great premise, but they’re absurdly gratuitous, thematically paper-thin, and needlessly sadistic toward superhero traditions. The TV show has improved this story and the characters that populate it in every conceivable way, including Soldier Boy. It has more nuance and depth, and less disdain for the superhero genre.