The Boys: Do YOU Have What It Takes to Be The Next

As we get closer to the third season of Amazon & EP & Showrunner Eric Kripke‘s The Boys, we have a very telling follow-up to Vought’s release of the official trailer, overview & key art for director Adam Bourke’s (PJ Byrne) Dawn of the Seven. Between Translucent’s (Alexander Hassell) demise, The Deep (Chace Crawford) still on the outs with the team, and Stormfront (Aya Cash) exposed for what she was, Vought’s The Seven hasn’t exactly been living up to their name when it comes to teammates. We learned back in January 2022 from VNN’s “Seven on 7” anchor Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison) that two members of The Seven will be chosen during the reality show American Hero, where 10 super-powered individuals will compete to see who’s left standing for the two coveted spots. The complete list includes Luckless, Livewire, Jet Streak, Europa, Moon Shadow, Lonestar, Critter, Silver Kincade, Pitstop, and the ex-boy band member Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva). Starlight (Erin Moriarty) will be hosting (which should be interesting considering Supersonic is Starlight’s ex), and the contestants are currently living in the house as filming is already underway.

In previous editions of “Seven on 7,” we were introduced to the San Diego-based Moonshadow & her “body-positive persona” after it was announced she would be on the cover of Vought Sports’ annual swimsuit issue. As for Livewire, the Midwest-based, electricity-powered supe made the news by busting an underground drug-smuggling ring using children’s candy to traffic illegal methamphetamines. Now, we’re getting our first look at the reality competition series’ official key art poster, with both Starlight and Homelander (Antony Starr) front & centered along with five contestants.

And here’s a look back at the VNN’s “Seven on 7” segment that first announced the series:

Now here’s a look at the “official” movie poster & character key art images for Dawn of the Seven:

And here’s a look back at the “official trailer” for Dawn of the Seven that was released earlier today:

Now here’s a look back at the official Season 3 trailer for Amazon’s The Boys, arriving on June 3rd (followed by our observations):

With the third season hitting screens on June 3rd, viewers were treated to the official trailer on Monday. After having screened it now about 23 times, here’s a breakdown of what the trailer had to offer and what that means for the season ahead. And make sure to let us know in the comments section just how brilliant we are…

Well, it looks like we’re getting a look at Cameron Coleman’s (Matthew Edison) new show as Homelander’s (Antony Starr) public relations tour to repair his image rolls on. But as we quickly see (and as Erin Moriarty‘s Starlight so succinctly puts it), “There’s something wrong with Homelander. There’s something broken. He’s lost his fucking mind.” Considering where things stood at the end of last season and how he’s had to be on a leash, it’s not that surprising. Though if we needed a reminder, we get that disturbing cow-milking scene and Homelander gently caressing a bloodstain on he lies next to it. And then we get a montage of Homelander’s growing madness as a segue to…

…Butcher (Karl Urban), who wakes up from a fever dream to a sound of a tea kettle. We get the rundown from Grace (Laila Robins) about how Butcher has been on the straight-and-narrow: not killing supes (though we see him damaging Sean Patrick Flanery‘s Gunpowder pretty badly), not drinking, and “even followed Hugh Campbell’s [Jack Quid] orders without killing him.” While Grace sees these as signs that maybe Butcher isn’t “such an asshole.” Visually, our biggest takeaway was seeing Hughie’s confidence as well as how weird it is to see the power dynamic between the two shift so dramatically. At least for now…

Now, this is where we start getting some quick scenes of other storylines, including Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) finally getting the family life he’s wanted for so long. But how will he deal with the fact that his job is to “discipline” the very supes that his daughter idolizes?

From there, we see Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) sharpening his tools and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) witnessing an uncomfortably rough exchange between Homelander and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher). But it’s the exchange between Vought head Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and Starlight that was fascinating because it gave us the vibe that Edgar is already looking to the future… and Starlight as the new leader of The Seven? I’ve always thought that Vought has some kind of genetic “killswitch” it could flip on Homelander if it needed to…

Ashley (Colby Minifie) alert! And if you were wondering if her life is going to get less stressful this season then look no further than the moment Homelander decided to drop someone from the sky to their bloody death before making his next public appearance. And he gets cheered for it, too! Yeah, Ashley’s face speaks for all of us.

Uh-oh! Something’s up and the “gloves are off” because Hughie sees something that leads him to realize that the government route doesn’t work and they’re going to have to go “old-school” on some supes (and we learned from Karen Fukuhara during her reaction to the trailer for Vanity Fair that the one dude was killed by a supes-themed dildo).

Ouch. That was a nasty glare exchange between Claudia Doumit‘s (literal) mind-blowing Congresswoman Victoria “Vic” Neuman and Starlight. But then we learn that there might be another way “to blow Homelander’s fucking brain out” that won’t require Neuman’s particular “talent”… Jensen Ackles‘ Soldier Boy (who clearly has some anger issues of his own).

From there, we see Butcher shooting up some Compound V to give him the boost he needs to handle Homelander. We also see a thawed (and now escaped) Soldier Boy lost, confused & on the run before he (apparently) does some serious damage to a building from his power surges.

Once again, Mother’s Milk needs to be the voice of reason by reminding Butcher that taking Compound V goes against everything they’ve been fighting for. But after a scene showing him looking more than comfortable with his new powers, Butcher argues that he needs it to level the playing field.

From there, we get some quick cuts of guns and violence (with bonus points for Laurie Holden‘s Crimson Countess putting her powers on horrific display) before Homelander once again references showing his “real” self to the world (as he did earlier) before offering his own public polling: “I mean, they fucking love me.” From there, we get more cuts of action & violence, and let’s just say that we’re not big fans of the position that Tomer Capon‘s Serge aka Frenchie finds himself in (though the dance number with Fukuhara’s Kimiko looks great). And Mother’s Milk breaking the bat on Butcher without him even flinching? Ouch.

And then we cut the credits… but wait! We have a final scene where Butcher and the crew watch an unthawed Soldier Boy stagger from his cryogenic chamber. And it looks like he has a whole ton of pent-up power that he needs to burn off fast (has us thinking back to that destroyed building earlier). As for Soldier Boy being a “weapon” to take down Homelander? We can’t help feeling like that plan isn’t going to work and that SB & Homelander are going to have a lot more in common than they realize.