Jensen Ackles could appear in The Boys after season 3
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The actor also described his World War II–era character as “this curmudgeon, bigoted a–hole.”
Jensen Ackles says ’the door is not closed’ for his The Boys role after season 3
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Jensen Ackles may be sticking around The Boys a bit longer than expected.
The Supernatural alum joins the cast of Amazon’s Emmy-nominated, R-rated superhero satire as Soldier Boy, a World War II–era supe who’ll make his debut in the upcoming third season, premiering June 3.
Appearing on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, which dropped Tuesday, the actor said “the door is not closed” should the series’ writers find room for him in later installments.
The Boys is set in a world dominated by superheroes and superhero culture. Mega corporation Vought has used a serum called Compound V to genetically create superhumans, and turned them into a billion-dollar industry, complete with merchandising, TV shows, movies, and exclusive contracts for them to protect cities. With all that power and fame, supes often act like out-of-control celebrities, and the Seven, Vought’s premiere team, are the worst.
The Boys Season 3 Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy on ‘The Boys’ | Credit: Amazon Studios
Season 3 will introduce Payback, which is essentially the Seven before the Seven came around. Soldier Boy led the group, which includes Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden) and Gunpowder (Sean Patrick Flanery), during WWII.
Ackles revealed new details about Soldier Boy to Rosenbaum, saying that, in essence, “He’s a jackass.”
“He’s a grandpa. He’s from the ’40s. He fought in World War II, and he’s just this curmudgeon, bigoted a–hole,” Ackles added. “He doesn’t age, so he’s this 40-year-old superhero who’s really 80 years old or 90 years old. There’s just so much material there… He’s [got] a taste for people who were of his era.”
Ackles, who grew a heavy beard for the role, also teased how the new season unveils his character. “They find me and I’ve been essentially in captivity for a while,” he said. “And so, when they do, I’m bearded and I look like [I’m from the movie] Cast Away, but then they clean me up and I get my superhero outfit back on and I go to town.”
The Boys Season 3 Jensen Ackles on ‘The Boys’ | Credit: Amazon Studios
Season 2 featured Stormfront (Aya Cash), a Nazi supe from Soldier Boy’s era who incited a public resurgence of white supremacy and racism in the present day. (Sound familiar?) Showrunner Eric Kripke previously teased to EW that season 3 will use Soldier Boy’s story to track how we arrived at this moment.
“There’s always been systemic racism and conflict and a lot of ugliness, yet always a fight to make things better,” Kripke said. “Certain politicians like to pitch this somehow idyllic ‘good old days’ where everything was perfect and calm. That is complete and utter bulls—. It was never that way. So, by exploring the history of Vought in the history of America, we get to make some of those points. There was never an America when they said, ‘Make America Great Again.’ It was always a struggle. That’s the point. It’s a struggle to make things better.”
The Boys season 3 premieres June 3 on Amazon Prime Video. Listen to the full episode of Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum here.
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Jensen Ackles Reveals Which Of His Former Co-Stars Was ‘Horrible’ To Work With
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Jensen Ackles opened up about one of his former co-stars that was “horrible” to work with.
The 43-year-old The Boys and Supernatural actor spoke to Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast, “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” and opened up about the less than stellar relationship he had with a former co-star.
“I was the new kid on the block, and I was picked on by the lead,” he said of their relationship, adding that it was “the worst kind of bickering a brother and sister could do.”
Click inside to find out who Jensen Ackles is referring to!
It’s Jessica Alba!
“It wasn’t that she didn’t like me. She just was like, ‘Oh, here’s the pretty boy that network brought in for some more window dressing because that’s what we all need,’” Jensen shared with Michael during Wednesday’s episode (January 19).
He added that from that point on, he decided to “fight fire with fire” during the run of Dark Angel: “We bickered. We bickered like brother and sister.”
Now though, Jensen says that he has nothing but respect for Jessica.
“I love Jess, which I know kind of contradicts what I just said,” he says, revealing that she had been “under an immense amount of pressure on that show. She was young, she was in a relationship and that was … causing some undue stress, I believe.”
He also recalled a key moment of their relationship on set, sharing that she had gone out of her way to comfort him when his grandfather died.
“My grandfather died while I was shooting it and she literally just walked into my trailer and held me for a half an hour,” Jensen said. “So it was that kind of a relationship. If she walked in, we’d be all hugs, but she didn’t make it easy on me.”
Just recently, another star spoke about a their own “difficult” co-star.
Donald R. White Obituary
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Donald R. White
Tomlinson Funeral Home
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Donald R. White
Levittown - Donald R. White, of Levittown, passed away on January 17th. He was 76 years old. He was a proud member of the United States Army’s Special Forces unit known as the Green Berets. After his military service, he owned his own stable, Don White Racing Stable, as a stakes winning Thoroughbred horse trainer for over 40 years. His favorite part of horse training was the challenge of preparing young Thoroughbreds for their new racing careers. He also enjoyed playing golf and watching sports. Donald will be deeply missed by his many friends, his racing family associates, and especially by his loving wife, Jane (Obst) and his children: Michael Rosenbaum (Tammie), and Stephanie White, as well as his grandson: Jan Michael Rosenbaum and his sisters: Dorothy Hansley and Linda Gurganus (Johnny). Relatives and friends are invited to attend Donald’s Viewing at the Tomlinson Funeral Home, 2207 Bristol Pike, Bensalem, PA 19020 on Friday, January 21st from 11:00 AM-1:00 PM followed by his Service at 1:00 PM. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Wounded Warriors veterans charity, https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.
Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles Reveals He’s Currently Developing Secret DC Comics Project
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Supernatural and The Boys star Jensen Ackles is gearing up for another round in the DC Universe. The actor revealed he’s been secretly developing a DC Comics project with Warner Bros. Ackles made the announcement on the Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum podcast. During Rosenbaum and Ackles’ conversation, the former Smallville actor asked Ackles what would be the one Marvel or DC movie role he’d love to do. Ackles responded with the small tease for his secret DC property, though he of course didn’t offer any clues as to what the project could be, or if it’s a feature film or television role.
A snippet of the Inside of You interview made its way to Twitter. “Well, there is a DC property that I’m currently developing right now with Warner Bros. and some other good partners that I’ve got my fingers crossed for,” Ackles revealed. “Again, I’m not going to talk about it cause you don’t want to jinx it.”
Jensen Ackles revealed on a podcast today that he currently has ‘his fingers crossed’ for a role in a secret DC property that is currently in deveopment. 👀 pic.twitter.com/lKd8KXJo1Y — davinson ❓0❓❓ (@limbodev) January 18, 2022
Of course, Ackles is no stranger to the DC Universe. He recently voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman in the two-part DC animated movie Batman: The Long Halloween, and also voiced Red Hood in 2010’s Batman: Under the Red Hood animated movie. We also can’t forget his role as Jason Teague in Smallville alongside Michael Rosenbaum.
“Been sitting on this news for while now,” Ackles said on Twitter when his role as Batman in The Long Halloween was first announced. “So excited and honored to be a part of the Batman legacy.”
Speculation will surely point to Jensen Ackles portraying Red Hood since he already has a history with the character. However, until either Ackles or Warner Bros. officially announces the project, this remains a guessing game for fans.
Ackles and his wife Danneel extended their first-look production deal with Warner Bros. Television when The CW began airing the final episodes of Supernatural. “Warner Bros. has been my home for the better part of two decades,” Ackles said in a statement. “The relationships I have acquired there are some of the finest and most supportive I could have hoped for in this industry. Danneel and I are thrilled for the opportunity to continue to grow as artists and now as a producers under the mentorship and guidance of Peter Roth and the whole WBTV team.”
Part of the deal includes Ackles’ company Chaos Machine Productions “develop TV programming for all platforms,” which also includes WarnerMedia’s HBO Max. The streamer has a number of DC television and movie projects in the pipeline, including the just-released Peacemaker, Batgirl, The Batman spinoff Gotham PD, Static Shock, J.J. Abrams’ Zatanna and Constantine, Green Lantern, Justice League Dark, and Michael B. Jordan’s Val-Zod Superman spinoff.
What DC project would you like to see Jensen Ackles star in? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
‘Peacemaker’ Star Jennifer Holland’s Journey to Harcourt
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When Jennifer Holland wrapped filming on James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad in early 2020, she put black ops member Emilia Harcourt behind her.
“I didn’t think I was going to play that character again,” Holland tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I just thought I got to do this cool role in his huge movie and have fun with him for a couple of weeks.”
So it was a bit surreal 11 months later when Holland found herself once again playing Harcourt, this time for a post-credits tag that would lead directly into Peacemaker, the new HBO Max show starring John Cena. That post-credits scene, shot in January 2021 on the Vancouver set of Peacemaker, was the opening salvo in six months of shooting for the team. The series, which debuted Jan. 13, centers on Cena’s Christopher “Peacemaker” Smith, with Holland’s Harcourt playing an integral role as one of his handlers working on a mission at the behest of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis).
Gunn, who has been Holland’s partner since 2015, penned the eight-episode series out of boredom during the pandemic, not knowing if it would even get made. Along the way, he let Holland know Harcourt would be back.
“I didn’t get my hopes up,” says Holland. Then WarnerMedia-owned HBO Max greenlit the show. “All of a sudden we are moving to Vancouver and he was prepping the show — it was a whirlwind.”
She found herself working closely with Cena, being wowed by his improvisational skills. He in turn found himself impressed by Holland.
“Jenn’s ability to flat out become her character was unbelievably impressive and ended up really rewarding me with examples of dedication to material and performance,” says Cena. “She knew her character so well and really fought to make sure those character traits stayed intact.”
The first episode includes a fight scene that sees Harcourt own a would-be attacker in a bar. Cena’s Peacemaker is instantly smitten, but Harcourt feels the opposite, particularly because he killed her colleague Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad.
“She’s not an angel,” says Holland. “It’s not like she hasn’t killed people before. But you don’t kill your fellow soldier. So she starts off with absolutely no respect for this guy. She cannot believe that Waller saddled her with him on this team.”
Jennifer Holland in Peacemaker Courtesy of HBO Max
Growing up outside of Chicago and other parts of the country, Holland was a good student who was serious about gymnastics and imagined a future as an architect. After discovering drama while in high school, Holland convinced her mother, a nurse, to let her finish school online. They piled their belongings into their Dodge Stealth and moved to Los Angeles shortly after Holland’s 17th birthday. She worked odd jobs as a hostess at restaurants such as Hooters and Outback Steakhouse while taking acting classes — sometimes as many as five a week. Eventually, she landed on procedurals (CSI Miami, Bones) and a direct-to-DVD American Pie spinoff. Some of the projects were good, some weren’t, but she was just happy to be working.
“Every role that got put in front of me, ‘Oh! I get to be in this terrible film!’” Holland recalls with a laugh. “I didn’t know the difference between quality. I had no clue. I was just so excited to be on set.”
Gunn came into Holland’s life in July 2015. The director’s friend Michael Rosenbaum, the actor known for playing Lex Luthor in Smallville, was dating one of Holland’s friends at the time. Rosenbaum offered to set them up after Gunn saw a photograph of Holland and inquired who she was. Rosenbaum’s then-girlfriend floated the idea to Holland, who had never heard of Gunn, even though he had become an A-list filmmaker with Guardians of the Galaxy the previous summer.
“She described James as a producer-director. I guess the fact that she put producer first or something, it just kind of gave me weird vibes,” Holland says with a laugh.
That initial hesitance changed when she looked up interviews of the affable filmmaker online. “He seemed so incredibly charming in interviews,” she recalls.
They went on a semi-blind date and clicked.
“I just told him my whole life story,” says Holland. “We spent like seven hours together and that’s it. That’s how it started.”
As she built a partnership with Gunn, he went off to film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in Atlanta in 2016, while she booked a role on the CMT ’50s music drama Sun Records as Becky Phillips, the wife of music producer Sam Phillips. She shot in Nashville, and would travel to Atlanta on the weekends.
While the series lasted just eight episodes, it provided a few full-circle moments for the actor. Holland and her onscreen husband, Chad Michael Murray, shared a manager when she first came to Los Angeles, while Kevin Fonteyne, who played Johnny Cash, also works as a physical trainer and got Holland in fighting shape for Peacemaker.
Though Sun Records was short-lived, Holland’s highest-profile role to date was just a few years away.
Peacemaker star Jennifer Holland Courtesy Jonny Marlow
Gunn is known for writing parts with specific actors in mind, yet even those closest to him say they are oblivious to Gunn’s intentions until he offers them the role. That was more or less true of Holland, too, though she was privy to more than other actors in Gunn’s life might be.
“He is really sensitive about not telling anyone until he knows it’s 100 percent,” says Holland. “Until he 100 percent is locked on a script and he knows for sure nothing is going to change, any character could get written out at any time.”
When Gunn was penning The Suicide Squad, he had a member of the Squad’s coms team in mind for Holland. As the role became bigger, he named her Emilia Harcourt, a name DC readers would recognize. After wrapping The Suicide Squad, Gunn realized there was even ore for Harcourt to do in Peacemaker.
“I had absolutely no idea how important to the story she was going to be,” says Holland of Gunn’s Peacemaker writing process. “He’ll come down from his office and he’ll sort of bounce ideas off me when he is writing. I started getting a little bit of a teaser of what the character would be.”
As Peacemaker got underway, Holland’s pre-acting training as a gymnast came in handy for a much-celebrated dance sequence filmed for the opening credits. For comedian Steve Agee, who plays techie John Economos, having Holland around proved a comfort.
“We had to have several rehearsals for it. They broke us up into groups of three; so it was myself, Chukwudi and Jenn,” recalls Agee. “Fifteen minutes into the first rehearsal Jenn was good to go, she could have shot it right then and there, but every time we showed up to a new rehearsal it was like Chuk and I were trying these dance moves for the first time. That was Jenn for the entire shoot, always ready to go and always nailing everything she had to do.”
Holland’s journey that led her to Harcourt began years ago on that car trip to L.A. with her mother. And it may not be over, should Peacemaker return for a second season.
Says Holland: “I feel so grateful for the whole thing. The character is just awesome. I love her so, so much.”
A previous version of this article misstated where Peacemaker filmed.