Jensen Ackles clarifies longstanding Marvel rumor: ‘Did I audition for Captain America? No
Jensen Ackles finally got his shot to play Captain America. That is, the Captain America of the world of The Boys.
In season 3, Ackles stars as Soldier Boy, a supe modeled after Marvel’s First Avenger but who is really anything but. He’ll be making his debut when Amazon Prime Video’s superhero satire returns June 3.
Many fans have pointed out that Ackles, a veteran of the CW’s Supernatural, once auditioned for the role of Cap, which ultimately went to Chris Evans, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s what they believed for many years, and that’s what has been peddled around the internet. Ackles, however, confirms to EW that while he may have been in contention for a brief time, it was so brief he never actually auditioned.
“Did I audition for Captain America? No, I did not,” Ackles says during a sit-down interview for EW’s The Boys season 3 cover shoot. “I don’t necessarily know, was that an auditioning kind of a thing? I feel like they just met with people on that.”
Ackles further clarifies that he “never got the opportunity to even talk to anybody” about the Cap job because of his busy schedule.
“I was not available, anyway. So, I don’t think they were going to work around my schedule. Doesn’t seem like a kind of property that would do that,” he continues. “I would’ve loved to have been in the mix on that because Chris [Evans] and I used to go against each other for quite a bit on a lot of different things back in the day. But, unfortunately, I didn’t get to fight him on that one.”
Ackles feels like he at least gets his shot now with Soldier Boy.
In the universe of The Boys, supes are not born, they are made. The Vought International corporation created a serum, Compound V, that grants people superhuman abilities. They injected babies with the pharmaceutical advancement and later sold their legion of grown supes as God’s chosen heroes. Soldier Boy was the very first superhero Vought packaged for the masses.
“It’s Captain America on his ass,” Ackles says. “It’s as if Captain America gave up super-heroism and was just your drunk and inappropriate uncle.”
Soldier Boy led Payback, Vought’s first premiere team of superheroes, who were active during World War II. But the Boys crew — Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie (Jack Quaid), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) — encounter him in the present day.
He’s kind of like Evans’ time-displaced super-soldier. He’s even got a shield. He’s just a total a–hole.
According to Ackles, “He’s old school. He’s from an era that is being close to forgotten, a time passed. He was World War II. He partied with Hefner in the Playboy mansion. This was just a different type of character. And he certainly represents, I think, a lot of that toxic masculinity that is so deeply rooted in a lot of what our society feels.”
The Boys premieres the first three episodes of season 3 on Amazon June 3 before moving into a one-episode-a-week release.
Read our cover story on The Boys here.
