The Boys Franchise Quietly Gets Better After Switching Main Characters

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

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, 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.