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Why The Boys Season 3 Looks So Different
The Boys season 3 appears to be more surreal and bizarre than ever, what exactly is happening to Billy Butcher and Homelander in the new season?

Why The Boys Season 3 Looks So Different

The Boys season 3 has two trailers that contain surreal and shocking imagery, unlike anything the show has presented before. The Boys’ characters are known for pushing the limits of shock and awe already. The Boys season 3 trailer appears more surreal than any season that has come before to match the bizarre subject matter of the upcoming storylines.

Although The Boys season 2 ended with Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his crew victorious over Homelander (Antony Starr) and Vought, The Boys season 3 trailer shows they are still far from done fighting their enemies. The Boys season 3 trailer contains several revelations, most prominently that Billy Butcher is taking a version of Compound V that makes him a superhero for 24 hours, and he intends to use it to kill Homelander. Homelander himself also appears to be losing his mind in the aftermath of losing Stormfront (Aya Cash) and his son. The trailer also introduces Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), a beloved Vought superhero from the 1940s that has been unfrozen and is more powerful than ever before.

The Boys season 3 trailer contains many psychedelic and surreal images that are unlike anything the show has done before because the show is pushing its central characters farther than ever. With Billy Butcher taking a dangerous drug that will alter every aspect of his biology to turn him into a Supe for 24 hours, the change in style make sense. Such a drug will undoubtedly cause Butcher to see the world differently, allowing The Boys’ visual effects department to create more surreal imagery to represent his physical transformation and how the drug affects his mental state.

Homelander is also going through a transition unlike any he’s faced before. The trailer also shows Homelander repeatedly addressing his romance with Stormfront during interviews, saying he “fell in love with the wrong woman.” Since Homelander believes himself to be superior to humans, repeatedly admitting he was wrong to reporters has to be unbearable for him. Homelander’s ego and sense of self are so fragile that this defeat has pushed him to the utter brink of sanity at the beginning of The Boys season 3. Homelander is also presented in bizarre situations throughout the trailer, he is depicted talking to different versions of himself in the mirror and also milks a cow. These images could be the visual representation of his psychological breakdown in The Boys season 3.

Finally, the show will also use new visual styles to represent how each character changes in The Boys season 3. For example, at first, Soldier Boy is depicted in the 1940s serialized war movie aesthetics to show what kind of superhero he was during World War 2. The show will contrast those aesthetics with a modern visual style once Soldier Boy enters into a modern-day setting to show how his life has been turned upside down. The character Soldier Boy is not the only one depicted in multiple stylized genres. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Frenchie (Tomer Kapon) are also presented in a musical sequence, which will likely be a visual representation of their relationship becoming more intimate.

The Boys season 3 promises to use striking and surreal visuals, the likes they have never used before, to satirize celebrity culture and superheroes (like those in the MCU) and represent the new emotional changes of its central characters. With the addition of a superpowered Billy Butcher, an even more unstable Homelander, and Soldier Boy, The Boys season 3 has an abundance of new material to complicate its story more than ever. The surreal visuals of The Boys season 3 promise that these story developments will be shocking, sickening, and exhilarating for all involved.