Will Billy Butcher Get Superpowers In The Boys Season 3?

Amazon Prime's "The Boys" is a rollicking action series that's been thrilling its audience for the past two season, with a third season coming up this summer. The titular team, comprised of non-powered humans from all walks of life from your average human to highly-trained former CIA operatives, have been assembled by the government to protect the world against the raging egos and homicidal tendencies of The Seven. The Seven are the world's most decorated superteam, but they have appetites for revenge and many other substances which imperil the humans they must coexist beside. That's where The Boys step in.

Among those ordinary folks is Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), the defacto leader of The Boys, who has made protecting humanity from The Seven his personal mission and has become wholeheartedly heedless in his quest. His hatred is focused on Homelander (Antony Starr) in particular. To get rid of Homelander, Butcher will do absolutely anything. With Season 3 just around the corner, some new images of Billy has fans wondering if maybe, just maybe, he might have to contend with one of his worst nightmares — getting powers of his own.

The rest of this article contains spoilers for the Wildstorm and Dynamite Comics' runs of "The Boys."

A fresh promotional poster released on Prime Video's Twitter account ahead of the June 3 release date of "The Boys" third season shows Billy with bright yellow, glowing eyes. The image is captioned with the phrase "it's time to level the playing field." Could this mean that he's going to have to deal with superpowers? 

While there's no current answer to where Prime's version of "The Boys" might take this plot twist, it's one that definitely didn't occur during either the Wildstorm or Dynamite Comics runs of the comic series. Butcher never attains super powers before he meets with an untimely end during Issue 71, though he does use Compound V to enhance his natural strength. In fact, the notion of him ever becoming a "supes" would probably turn his stomach, since his rage against them motivates him so thoroughly. In that version of "The Boys" lore, Billy does everything from blackmail Homelander with photos of the superhero committing some pretty horrible atrocities, to killing most of The Boys and nearly murdering hundreds of innocents with a modified, airbourne cloud of Compound V.

It's worth noting, however, that Prime's version of "The Boys" has forked away from the comics rendition of the series in matters of continuity. It's quite possible the show might take Billy in this direction. And it would certainly be quite interesting to watch a man who hates superpowers so much develop them.