Everything We Know About The Boys Season 4's New Supes
Perhaps the biggest development in season 3 of "The Boys" is that Vought's beloved group of superheroes, The Seven, lost a couple members. Supersonic is dead, as is Black Noir. Starlight (Erin Moriarty) has left the group forever, and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is no longer even a supe. That leaves only three members left: Homelander (Antony Starr), the Deep (Chase Crawford), and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher). If you're someone who'd actually like to be rescued from a dangerous situation, this is not exactly an inspiring line-up.
So naturally, season 4 will see the addition of a few new members of the Seven, which means we're about to be introduced to some brand new supes. So far, we've gotten a glimpse of two of them: Sister Sage and Firecracker. But who are these two supes? What are their powers? What can we expect from them as we head into the new season?
Sister Sage
Sister Sage will be played by Susan Heyward, who you might recognize as Tamika Ward on "Orange is the New Black" or Deena Pilgrim on "Powers." We already know Heyward's more than capable of playing tough, powerful characters, so it'll certainly be interesting to see how she handles this new role as a crimefighting superhero.
As for Sage herself: we don't have much to go on, as there is no Sister Sage in the source material. Even if she was a comics character, that wouldn't give us much of an idea: the show's version of Soldier Boy, after all, was nothing like his comic book counterpart. However, the name "Sage" gives us a few hints.
Remember that season 2 episode where the Boys headed to Sage Grove Center, the secret facility run by Stormfront (Aya Cash) that was experimenting on people with Compound V? Well, Sister Sage's name seems to imply that this is where she's from, and if what we've seen of the Center is anything to go on, it means she's probably been through a whole lot. We can only hope she deals with it in a healthy way.
The show's Twitter account described her as being "already a thousand steps ahead of you," which might imply that she's able to see the future, or that she's able to read people and guess their decisions really well. Or maybe she's like A-Train, with some sort of speed-related power.
Firecracker
Firecracker will be played by Valorie Curry, who you may remember as Emma Hill in "The Following" or Kara in "Detroit: Becoming Human." If Firecracker's name is anything to go by, it seems like she'll be similar to season 2's Lamplighter, who could control fire. Or maybe she'll have powers similar to Starlight, who can use electricity to create bursts of light.
Much like Sister Sage, Firecracker is an entirely original character, so there's not much in the comics to draw on for predictions with her. What we do know is that the show's Twitter account described her as having "a short fuse," which doesn't bode well. We've already met more than a few supes with short fuses, and we know exactly what sort of chaos they can bring to the non-supes around them.
Our best guess? She's going to end up as another ally to Homelander. Her patriotic outfit, with its reds, blues, and whitish silver, seem to invoke the same sort of feelings that Homelander's outfit invokes.
Another ominous clue: showrunner Eric Kripke teased both new characters on Twitter by saying, "These new Supes are some of the best & craziest ever written for #TheBoys. You are going to love them. And by love, I mean be absolutely horrified & a tiny bit nauseous." It may seem hard to believe that they'd both turn out to be terrible people, but considering that Homelander's the one calling the shots at Vought these days, it'll make a lot of sense.
A lot to look forward to
Another change of "The Boys" season 4 is that they've made Homelander's troubled son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) a regular cast member. Whereas Ryan spent most of season 2 and 3 as a supporting character, with relatively little screentime and focus, this change promises that we can expect Crovetti to have a lot more material to work with. So far, Ryan's largely been a plot device; his choices mostly only serve to reflect on Homelander and Butcher's character arcs. Hopefully season 4 will give him the chance to be as complicated as any other adult main character on "The Boys."
There's a lot to look forward to as we wait for season 4. We already know that Butcher's got less than a year to live, that Homelander's closer to snapping than ever, and that VP-candidate Victoria Neuman is bound to be a truly difficult villain for the Boys to take down. Although the comics give us some idea of what we can expect, Ryan, Sister Sage and Firecracker all serve as major wild cards. All we know for sure is that these new characters will be, as Eric Kripke told fans, "Horrific & hilarious & very, very dangerous."