As one chapter of Amazon’s flagrant anti-superhero propaganda closes, another begins. Right on the heels of “The Boys“ series finale, Prime Video has dropped the first teaser trailer for its highly anticipated prequel series, “Vaught Rising.” Because if there is one thing Vought International knows how to do, it’s franchise a brand until the wheels fall off.
The teaser opens with a dangerously naive Ben (Jensen Ackles), long before he became the jaded, cigar-chomping Soldier Boy, declaring: “I want to fight for the flag. I want to be… a hero.” Oh, honey. If only you knew the corporate paperwork, trauma, and compound-V cocktails that were actually required. If only you knew the corporate paperwork, trauma, and compound-V cocktails that were actually required.
The Pitch: Mad Men Meets Murder Mystery
Set decades before Billy Butcher started slaughtering Supes, “Vought Rising” trades modern tech for a 1950s aesthetic. Series mastermind Eric Kripke describes the prequel as a “twisted murder mystery about the origins of Vought in the 1950s.”
The narrative promises to pull back the curtain on the early, unpolished exploits of Soldier Boy and the diabolical, behind-the-scenes maneuvering of Clara Vought (Aya Cash)—the woman fans know better by her future, incredibly racist moniker, Stormfront.
The teaser wraps with a fateful meeting between Ben and Clara, where she cryptically promises him, “There is a bright future. All we need to do is take it.” (Narrator voice: They should not have taken it.)
The Call Sheet
Alongside returning heavy-hitters Ackles and Cash, the 1950s corporate ladder is being populated by a mix of fresh and familiar talent, including Mason Dye, Will Hochman, KiKi Layne, Jorden Myrie, Nicolo Pasetti, Elizabeth Posey, Ricky Staffieri, and Brian J. Smith.
Connecting the Dots (and the Cryo-Chambers)
For those keeping track of the timeline, when Jensen Ackles originally crashed into Season 3 of “The Boys,” he had just spent 38 years frozen like a TV dinner in Russia. That stasis allowed Vought to harvest his DNA and create everyone’s favorite milk-drinking dictator, Homelander.
Their incredibly toxic father-son dynamic hit rock bottom in the final stretch of the flagship series when Soldier Boy wisely opted out of Homelander’s “let’s become literal gods” scheme—earning himself a one-way ticket right back into a cryogenic freezer.
According to Kripke, that icy fate wasn’t just a convenient way to bench a powerhouse.
“The ending that we have for Soldier Boy and The Boys is very intentional in terms of how it connects to Vought Rising,” Kripke teased.
So, put on your best double-breasted suit, grab a stiff drink, and prepare to watch capitalism create its very first monsters. “Vaught Rising” is heading your way!
