The Boys: Vought Rising: Kripke Has Us Thinking Multiple Timelines
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The Boys: Vought Rising: Kripke Has Us Thinking Multiple Timelines
Will Showrunner Paul Grellong's Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash-starring spinoff, The Boys: Vought Rising, run with multiple timelines?
Published Thu, 28 May 2026 15:37:09 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary
- The Boys: Vought Rising is set in the 1950s, but Eric Kripke’s latest comments hint the spinoff may span multiple timelines.
- Kripke stayed coy on Soldier Boy’s frozen fate, teasing that Vought Rising will make key The Boys finale choices click later.
- Jensen Ackles says The Boys prequel explores a greener Soldier Boy, revealing the heartbreak that shaped his future.
- The Boys universe expands through Vought Rising, digging into Compound V’s origins and Vought’s deadly early experiments.
Set in the 1950s, Showrunner Paul Grellong's Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy) and Aya Cash (Clara Vought, aka Stormfront)-starring The Boys: Vought Rising explores the twisted origins of Vought International. With the "prequel" set to hit Prime Video screens in 2027, there have been growing rumblings that the prequel could turn out to be much more than that, possibly running with multiple timelines. That means we could be learning a whole lot more about what "The Boys" universe looks like post-Homelander (Antony Starr). Previously, The Boys Showrunner/EP Eric Kripke has been "no comment" when it comes to confirming or denying the theory – but during a recent interview, Kripke appears to add a bit more fuel onto the dumpster fires of random speculation.
"I think we told his story that we wanted to tell in this season. And part of it, I can only be very annoyingly coy to say that because we're deep into 'Vought Rising' and we know what that story is," Kripke shared when asked about the decision to put Soldier Boy back into the deep-freeze before the series finale. "We know where that goes; a lot will make sense that might not make sense to the viewers at this exact moment, but hang in there, it all will. I think it is the appropriate place to land it because again, 'The Boys' is about The Boys, and part of the job of the season was wrapping up other people's supporting players' stories, so that on that final episode, we could really focus on the main characters."
The Boys: Kripke, Ackles on Final Season Setting Up "Vought Rising"
"It was exciting, and it was a little bit more challenging because I felt like I'd gotten to know modern-day Soldier Boy pretty well and had him kind of dialed in. And then it kind of stripped a lot of that away to tell the story of how he was back then, before a lot of the shit had happened. But also, while that stuff is happening, when we see him in 'The Boys,' this is the past of all of that stuff, and it's how that kind of shaped his life and shaped who he was and his ideology of himself and of the world," Ackles explained during a recent interview with Deadline Hollywood.
"But you kind of have to strip all that away because he's now going through it, so it's the heartache and the breakup and the experience that he's having in 'V Rising' that we then understand why he became who he became," he continued. "So, it was a little bit different. It was a little trickier to get some footing in that character, but Paul Grellong, who ran the show, did an incredible job of writing these characters out, these storylines, and you'll definitely see the modern-day Soldier Boy; he's in there. But you kind of get the sense of seeing why certain elements of his personality took over more."
Speaking with TV Insider, Kripke shared that Homelander and Soldier Boy's trip to Fort Harmony gave them a chance to expand on the show's universe while offering key elements that will be much more in play in the prequel series. "It's like a little bit of a teaser on 'Vought Rising,' but it's not so much about the location as it is about the stories that you hear about all the different characters, like Soldier Boy's rivalry with his brother, for example, or when you meet him in 'Vought Rising,' he's not like this tough, cocky, devil may care guy, he's a much more green version of Soldier Boy that everyone frankly rolls their eyes at because he's the rich kid who bought his way into the program, whereas everyone else was really seasoned military," Kripke explained.
He continued, "And also the notion that the trial and error and the death and destruction that Vought caused on his way to making those four super soldiers, and then as it evolves into creating what we know the V as we know it today, and the trail of bodies he left behind, that's an important setup as well. So it was fun. We tried to do it in a way that was just important to this particular episode. And every season we're talking about Compound V, where did it come from, how did it start, what really is its origins, and that's just interesting in and of itself, but it also helps kind of tease 'Vought Rising.'"
Along with Ackles and Cash, the spinoff prequel also stars Will Hochman (Blue Bloods), Elizabeth Posey (Euphoria), Jorden Myrie (Bridgerton), Nicolò Pasetti (Industry), Ricky Staffieri (The Bear), Brian J. Smith (Sense8), Mason Dye (Stranger Things), KiKi Layne (The Old Guard 2), Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live), Mark Pellegrino (American Rust), Eric Johnson ("Fifty Shades" franchise), Annie Shapero (House of the Dragon), Raphael Sbarge (Task), Romi Shraiter (Ginny & Georgia), Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica), and David Hewlett (Mistletoe Murders).
Paul Grellong will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, Ken Levin, Jason Netter, Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Michaela Starr, and Jim Barnes also serve as executive producers on the series. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios, in association with Kripke Enterprises, Point Grey Pictures, and Original Film.
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