The Boys Franchise Quietly Gets Better After Switching Main Characters

Published Jul 27, 2026, 9:30 PM EDT Dhruv is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division. He has been consistently contributing to the website for over two years and has written thousands of articles covering streaming trends, movie/TV analysis, and pop culture breakdowns. Before Screen Rant, he was a Senior Writer for The Cinemaholic, covering everything from anime to television, from reality TV to movies. After high school, he was on his way to become a Civil Engineer. However, he soon realized that writing was his true calling. As a result, he took a leap and never looked back. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Prime Video's The Boys franchise is all set to switch its main characters soon in its upcoming spin-off series. This new shift in the franchise arguably makes it a lot better. Although The Boys has performed incredibly well both commercially and critically on Prime Video, so far, it seemingly needed this switch to keep things fresh and interesting. Throughout its runtime, The Boys featured Homelander as its primary antagonist while walking through the titular team's morally ambiguous endeavors to stop him. In its final chapter, The Boys drew clearer lines between the heroes and the villains by portraying Homelander as the obvious villain and Butcher and the team as the heroes. With season 5, The Boys marked the end of Homelander's story and established that it did not have any more stories to tell in the present timeline. Owing to this, the franchise's next installment, Vought Rising, unfolds in the past and replaces Homelander and Billy Butcher with Soldier Boy as the main character. This shift ensures the show remains as novel and intriguing as ever. Shifting The Franchise’s Focus On Soldier Boy Makes The Boys More Interesting The Boys season 5 maintained the franchise's momentum by earning almost unanimous acclaim from critics. However, a closer look at its reception reveals how many viewers grew tired of its redundant storytelling. Up until season 3, The Boys was widely loved for being absolutely unpredictable. However, with season 4, the show started showing signs of creative stagnation. In season 5, The Boys was seemingly running out of stories to tell as it retconned many character beats and spent a significant chunk of its runtime setting up the next spin-off. These narrative issues in the show's final chapter established that to be able to continue, it needed a major shift in its storytelling. Fortunately, in its upcoming spin-off, this is exactly what the franchise is doing. Soldier Boy made his first major appearance in The Boys season 3 and rose in the ranks to become one of the main drivers of its story. However, before season 3's credits started rolling, Soldier Boy was reduced to a background character all over again. He later made a brief appearance in Gen V season 1 before finally returning in season 5. In The Boys season 5, Soldier Boy comes off more as a side character as he is removed from the overarching story long before the final chapter. Since the show does a decent job at establishing how his past is packed with enough moral ambiguity and dark secrets to fuel an entire story of its own, he seems like the perfect lead for the upcoming spin-off. By shifting the entire franchise's focus towards him, The Boys ensures that its stories remain fresh and viewers get to know more about a character who has long lingered on the fringes of the main narrative. Vought Rising Is Still Risky After Gen V’s Cancellation Brooke Palmer/©Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collection As exciting as Vought Rising may seem, it is hard not to see how it is a risky project. Gen V was supposed to be the next big addition to The Boys franchise. The spin-off series showed a lot of promise in season 1 and somehow became even better in season 2. Some of its leads, like Marie, were even expected to appear in the parent series' finale and fight head-to-head with Homelander. Surprisingly, despite earning immense acclaim, Gen V struggled to be as commercially successful as The Boys. Its viewership significantly dipped in season 2, which eventually led to its cancellation. None of its characters got the resolution they deserved, establishing how, despite The Boys' popularity, its spin-offs are not guaranteed to achieve the same level of mainstream success. ​​​​​​​Vought Rising premieres on Prime Video in 2027. Vought Rising, too, could meet the same fate as Gen V. Gen V still had loose connections with The Boys and even briefly featured some of the main characters from the parent series. However, since Vought Rising unfolds decades before The Boys, it will hardly feature a few primary characters from the parent series. While Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy and Aya Cash's Clara will likely be enough to draw in many viewers initially, the prequel's long-term success will depend on many other factors. Hopefully, the upcoming The Boys spin-off will not meet the same fate as Gen V. Vought Rising Network Prime Video Directors Philip Sgriccia, Shana Stein, Sam Miller Cast Elizabeth Posey Private Angel Vought Rising is a prequel to The Boys set in the 1950s, following the early years of Vought International as Soldier Boy and Stormfront help shape the corporation into a powerful force built on propaganda, celebrity, and hidden violence. Set decades before the events of the main series, the show explores how the company’s public image was constructed and how its corruption became deeply tied to American culture and politics. Writers Eric Kripke, Paul Grellong, Jim Barnes, Lauren Greer, Matt Berns, Paul Keables, Sheila Wilson, Sophia Lopez Main Genre Action Creator(s) Paul Grellong Executive Producer(s) Darick Robertson, Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, Garth Ennis, James Weaver, Jason Netter, Jim Barnes, Ken F. Levin, Michaela Starr, Neal H. Moritz, Ori Marmur, Paul Grellong, Pavun Shetty, Seth Rogen Producers Jensen Ackles, Aya Cash Seasons 1 The Boys 7/10 Release Date 2019 - 2026-00-00 Showrunner Eric Kripke Based on the hit comic series, Amazon Prime's The Boys is a gritty subversive take on the superhero genre, focusing on a group of vigilantes who confront and punish the powerful superheroes who abuse their abilities. Cast Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Dominique McElligott, Claudia Doumit, Cameron Crovetti, Nneka Elliott, Laila Robins, Shantel VanSanten, Aya Cash, Giancarlo Esposito, Jordana Lajoie, Katy Breier, Matthew Edison, Jim Beaver, Elisabeth Shue, Jensen Ackles, Simon Pegg, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Ann Cusack, Nicola Correia Damude, Christian Keyes, Sabrina Saudin, Malcolm Barrett, Liyou Abere, Jennifer Esposito, David Reale, Frances Turner Directors Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Eric Kripke Writers Eric Kripke Main Genre Action Creator(s) Eric Kripke Executive Producer(s) Eric Kripke, Neal H. Moritz, Seth Rogen, Pavun Shetty, James Weaver, Ori Marmur, Evan Goldberg, Philip Sgriccia, Nick Barrucci, Ken F. Levin, Jason Netter, Gabriel García Márquez, Garth Ennis, Michaela Starr, Darick Robertson, Craig Rosenberg, Paul Grellong, David Reed, Rebecca Sonnenshine, Jessica Chou, Hartley Gorenstein, Dan Trachtenberg, Meredith Glynn, Judalina Neira, Gabriel Garcia Producers Eric Kripke, Neal H. Moritz, Jason Netter, Gabriel Garcia, Anslem Richardson, Karl Urban, Hartley Gorenstein, Antony Starr Seasons 5