Why The Boys Is Giving Butcher Homelander’s Powers In Season 3

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Boys comics that may or may not happen in Amazon’s The Boys series. 

Billy Butcher’s new superpowers teased by The Boys season 3 immediately make him Homelander’s most dangerous enemy to date. First released on July 26th, 2019, The Boys has received much acclaim across its first two seasons, with critics praising the Amazon series’ dark brand of humor and biting social commentary alongside its gore-filled action sequences. The Boys season 3 is set to premiere on June 3rd, 2022, with the series’ latest red band teaser trailer shedding further light on the carnage set to unfold.

The Boys‘ new red band trailer reveals several shocking new plotlines set to unfold across the course of season 3. The biggest of these is undoubtedly the revelation that Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) receives superpowers, with the trailer showing Butcher’s eyes glowing gold and the boys’ leader vomiting before lasers shoot forth from his eyes. Butcher being injected with Compound V has been a long-speculated event, with The Boys original comic series also granting Butcher Supe powers – albeit with a completely different aesthetic for Garth Ennis’ classic character.

As a result, Butcher’s new powers make him Homelander’s (Antony Starr) most dangerous enemy in The Boys season 3. Not only do Butcher’s new season 3 powers now put him on par with Homelander in terms of strength and ability (a-la eye lasers), but Butcher’s intense hatred of Homelander will now be further fueled by the fact that he is becoming the thing he hates most. In this way, Butcher’s story arc becomes a tragedy, mirroring his original comics storyline, in which he goes after his own team after Homelander’s death.

How Butcher’s Season 3 Powers Changes The Boys Comics Ending

In The Boys comics, Butcher’s injection of Compound V grants him super strength, allowing him to properly compete against the Supes he hates most for the first time. This path eventually leads Butcher and Homelander into a final showdown, which leads to Homelander’s death – though this isn’t at Billy’s own hands. With his mission complete, Butcher’s focus then turns on his own – now superpowered – crew, making him the final villain of The Boys story and even more dangerous than Homelander was.

Amazon’s The Boys has chosen to go with a different aesthetic for the superpowered Butcher, giving him glowing gold eyes and laser vision akin to his nemesis. This change sets up Butcher as a tragic character for The Boys season 3, having become a literal representation of the thing he hates most while also foreshadowing Butcher’s downfall by aesthetically having him mirror Homelander – the epitome of evil in The Boys to date.

In this way, Butcher’s new powers make him Homelander’s most dangerous enemy, with Butcher’s revulsion at his new abilities likely to make his hatred for Homelander even more intense. This anger will, as in The Boys comics, put Butcher on a collision course with Homelander, with the Amazon series looking increasingly likely to mirror Garth Ennis’ original storyline in temrs of Homelander’s impending death. With The Boys season 4 confirmed, Butcher’s visual similarities to the villainous Homelander are likely a nod to The Boys‘ increasingly dark-looking future that makes Butcher Homelander’s most dangerous foe by far.

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