The Boys Franchise Is Returning To Prime Video And Immediately Replacing Hughie & Starlight

Published Oct 16, 2026, 1:15 PM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

One of the many complaints about The Boys’ fifth and final season is that it dedicated far too much screen time to Soldier Boy and not nearly enough screen time to, well, the Boys themselves. While mainstays like Annie and M.M. often felt like background characters, Soldier Boy had plenty of opportunities to cuss, chew out his estranged son, and list old-timey celebrities he slept with once upon a time.

The denouement of Homelander’s villain arc hinged on “what Clara would’ve wanted.” That line got memed to oblivion, because it was such a random way to explain away Soldier Boy’s motivations. But it makes a lot more sense within the context of the next spinoff that Amazon is trying to set up. The Boys season 5 was less interested in concluding The Boys’ story and more interested in setting the stage for the next chapter.

Set to premiere on Prime Video in 2027, Vought Rising is a prequel that will chronicle the origins of the Vought corporation through the lens of a grisly murder mystery. Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy will take center stage as The Boys’ new main character, while Aya Cash is reprising her role as Clara Vought — better known by her supe alter ego Stormfront — alongside him. Vought Rising is a corporate conspiracy thriller and a whodunit, but it’s also a love story.

Until now, the central romance in The Boys has been Hughie Campbell and Annie January, a.k.a. Starlight. Billy Butcher’s primary motivation is avenging his wife, Becca, but we rarely saw them together. Hughie and Annie, on the other hand, were strangers when we met them and expectant parents when we last saw them, so we saw the entire arc of their relationship play out.

But the writing often did a disservice to that relationship. Vought Rising is a chance to tell a more engaging love story in the Boys-verse.

Vought Rising Can Be The Boys' Wildest Love Story

There were some great moments between Hughie and Starlight over the years, not least of which was the revelation they were expecting a baby The Boys’ final scene, but there were plenty of missteps in their love story. In the show’s penultimate season, the writers had Hughie assaulted by a shapeshifter posing as Annie, then framed the real Annie as the true victim of the situation and made out like Hughie had done something wrong. There were a lot of dicey issues like this in the writing, and Jack Quaid and Erin Moriarty’s chemistry wasn’t strong enough to paper over them.

Since Vought Rising is putting Soldier Boy and Stormfront’s romance front and center, it’s a chance for The Boys to tell a weirdly engaging, twisted love story. With any luck, Ackles and Cash will have enough chemistry to make their characters' journeys worth following. It’s a tall order for The Boys’ writing staff, but these particular characters will make Vought Rising a very different kind of romance. Where Hughie and Annie’s relationship was a fairy tale among the horrors of the show, Soldier Boy and Stormfront are anything but conventional.

Soldier Boy and Stormfront are both pretty despicable people, with an extremely disgusting view of the world, so their love story could end up being Bonnie and Clyde with superpowers. It could be what The Bride! wanted to be, but hopefully a lot better. The juxtaposition of a gritty, violent Boys adventure with a tragic love story could be something special.

In The Boys season 5, Soldier Boy waxed lyrical about his love for Clara like it was the greatest romance of all time. Now, it’s up to Vought Rising to live up to those claims and deliver a love story for the ages.

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  Ben / Soldier Boy

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  Clara Vought / Liberty

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  Elizabeth Posey

  Private Angel

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  William Hochman

  Torpedo

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.