The final season of the mothership show includes various references to the next spinoff, led by Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash.

How The Boys season 5 tees up Vought Rising prequel: Bombsight’s debut, Soldier Boy origins, and more

The final season of the mothership show includes various references to the next spinoff, led by Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

EW's editorial guidelines

on May 7, 2026 2:57 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Mason Dye as Bombsight on 'The Boys' season 5. Credit:

Jasper Savage/Prime

- Here are all the *Vought Rising* references on *The Boys* season 5.

- The 1950s-set prequel stars Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy and Aya Cash as Stormfront (once known as Clara Vought/Liberty).

- Other main *Vought Rising* players Bombsight (Mason Dye), Torpedo (Will Hochman), and Private Angel (Elizabeth Posey) are all referenced.

**This article contains spoilers from *The Boys* season 5, episode 6, "Though the Heavens Fall."**

*The Boys* may be ending, but season 5 signals where the VCU (Vought Cinematic Universe) goes from here.

Starting with episode 3, the final season includes overt and more subtle nods to the events of *Vought Rising*, the next spinoff series coming to Prime Video following the college-set *Gen V*. Set in 1950s New York City at the dawn of the superhero age, the prequel will chronicle the beginnings of the Vought Corporation and the early exploits of Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy and Aya Cash's Stormfront, previously known as Clara Vought.

Ackles maintains a steady presence on *The Boys* season 5, but the third episode first references the new spinoff's other main characters, including Clara, Bombsight (Mason Dye), Torpedo (Will Hochman), and Private Angel (Elizabeth Posey).

Eric Kripke, showrunner of *The Boys* and an executive producer of the larger VCU, describes *Vought Rising* as "*L.A. Confidential* with superheroes. Maybe grimier. Probably, definitely grimier."

"It's a murder-mystery," he said of the show that's spearheaded by Paul Grellong, "and it's got that noir-ish — not Black Noir, but actual noir — movin' through the streets and femme fatales and detectives, but also heroin dens and gay bars and pill-popping and famous people. So it's got a real learned, fun, pulpy vibe that gives it its own energy. It feels like a *Pulp Fiction*-y kind of mystery-story."

The OG heroes

Soldier Boy, Private Angel, and Torpedo from 'Vought Rising'.

As explained by Dr. Sameer Shah (Omid Abtahi) and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) on *The Boys* season 5's third episode, Clara, Soldier Boy, Bombsight, Torpedo, and Private Angel were the first successful test subjects (and survivors) of V1, the first iteration of Compound V. It's considered highly unstable, hence all the dead subjects, but it's also 10 times more potent than the superpower-granting serum of the present day. It's why the supes from this era never age.

Stormfront/Clara, the wife of Nazi Vought founder Frederick Vought, was the very first V1 test subject. She later became the supe Liberty before she disappeared for decades and reemerged during the events of *The Boys* season 2 as the plasma-blasting Stormfront. Soldier Boy's reaction to Clara's name on episode 3, titled "Every One of You Sons of Bitches," hints at their history.

Jessie T. Usher reacts to 'The Boys' season 5 premiere shocker

Jack Quaid says goodbye to 'The Boys': 'It's gonna be pretty gruesome'

The fifth and sixth episodes prominently display vintage posters and ads that featured the supes of the Vought Rising age. This includes a cigarette ad with Silver Kincaid, who was played in season 3 of *The Boys* by actress Jasmin Husain. We also see an old-timey black-and-white commercial for diet pills with Bombsight.

Addressing all the prequel callouts on the mothership drama, Kripke says, "We started with 'Homelander wants to be a god.' Well, there are immortal characters in the show. That's Soldier Boy, that's Stormfront, there's these characters who got these early doses of Compound V. So what was that? Let's go back to the very beginning of what Vought was starting, which was not a huge concern of the storylines in *Vought Rising*, but we just thought it was interesting. So it all happened organically."

Who is Quinn on The Boys?

Quinn (Kris Hagen) on 'The Boys' season 5.

*The Boys*' final season introduces Fort Harmony, a now-abandoned World War II base and army hospital where Frederick Vought worked. The government classified the site as top secret and decommissioned it after the war. It's where Vought tested V1.

Kripke says that the facility is "mostly dedicated for *The Boys*" rather than *Vought Rising*, but it is part of the backstory of those upcoming characters. "We're not running to Fort Harmony in *Vought Rising*," he explains. "When you lay out the timeline, it was like 1944 that Vought was creating that first generation of heroes, six years before that show even starts. But we do make a point, which is he had so many failed experiments and they all went so horribly wrong, and that it would make perfect sense that Quinn was one of them."

Kripke confirms we won't be meeting Quinn, played by Kris Hagen, on *Vought Rising*. He's just a character for *The Boys* at this point. "Although maybe now in season 2 of *Vought Rising*," the EP offers. "It's a genuinely good idea." (For the record, season 2 has not been officially greenlit to date, though the show is designed for multiple seasons.)

As Kripke explains, Quinn was one of the U.S. troops — like Private Angel, Bombsight, and Torpedo — picked for Vought's experimentations with the V1 formula. "Most of them exploded or died or became something like Quinn, who they just clearly left behind in some room," he says. "And then over the years, he literally grew."

Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Homelander (Antony Starr) on 'The Boys' season 5.

Jasper Savage/Prime Video

Quinn's power can be described as rage-bait; he incites others to rage against each other. A side effect of the V1 was his transformation into a fungal-like being whose spores and tendrils spread across all of Fort Harmony, infecting any around him with anger.

Quinn and Soldier Boy, known first as Ben, have clear beef. "Soldier Boy was the only one who bought his way into the program as a rich kid, I don't think really understanding how dangerous it was at the time," Kripke notes. "So everyone hated him. Even when you meet the other heroes in *Vought Rising*, they're all pretty much rolling their eyes at this rich boy. So Quinn always hated him."

Other bits and pieces of Soldier Boy's backstory are sprinkled throughout the episodes, including mentions of a rivalry with his brother, which Kripke confirms comes up in *Vought Rising*. "He wasn't as brave and devil-may-care in the past," he states. "He was a little greener."

Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) vs. Bombsight (Mason Dye) on 'The Boys' season 5.

Robin Cymbaly/Prime

Episode 6, titled "Though the Heavens Fall," officially marks the debut of Dye as the supe Bombsight. The actor, known prior for *Stranger Things* and *Teen Wolf*, first shot his material for *The Boys* before *Vought Rising*, largely because his super suit was still being designed and constructed at the time. "It was figuring out the logistics of it more than anything," Kripke comments.

Bombsight's power is acting like a living bomb. He doesn't explode, per se, but "he can fly and he has basically invulnerable skin, so you can't get through his skin," Kripke says. "He's got the strength and speed of a bomb. That's the thing."

The character is also a smack addict, whose habit exposes him to Homelander and Soldier Boy as the V1 thief during the events of *The Boys*. He's holding the formula in the hopes of making his former love, Golden Geisha (Naoko Mori), immortal like him so they can be together forever. To his dismay, she's content to live a mortal life in Vought Villages, a retirement facility for supe seniors.

Kripke is wary about giving away *Vought Rising* spoilers but notes "an interesting continuum" between the character's arc on both dramas. Where the Soldier Boy of the prequel and *The Boys* "are two very different characters in terms of where they are in their lives," he notes of Bombsight, "you feel like he's running from his own demons and he's gone to seed a little bit. You see in *Vought Rising* why that is and what his trauma is that causes him to be like a charming scumbag. You see what pain caused that attitude."

Mason Dye as Bombsight on 'Vought Rising'.

Amazon MGM Studios

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

In casting Dye, the EP says they wanted the actor to do something "very different" than *Stranger Things*. "We wanted a character who is likable," Kripke continues. "It's that thing where you can be a smart-ass and a little degraded, but still make your heart and your humanity evident, despite that scoundrel exterior. He makes you really care for this heroin addict."

Filming on season 1 of *Vought Rising* already wrapped, and though a premiere date has not been confirmed, it will debut sometime in 2027.

If the show continues for multiple seasons, Kripke teased "we've discussed" bringing back Ethan Slater to play Thomas Godolkin, the founder of Godolkin University with the power of mind control, who first appeared on *Gen V*. "I think we'd be insane to not put Ethan Slater's character in that show," Kripke said.

New episodes of *The Boys* season 5 drop Tuesdays on Prime Video.

*This article has been with new episodes of *The Boys* continue to drop weekly.*

- Superhero TV Shows

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Superhero”