The Boys' Jensen Ackles shares "hairy" throwback of Soldier Boy ahead of season 3

The Boys star Jensen Ackles has promised things are "gonna get hairy" in season 3 of the hit Prime Video series – only not in the way you might initially think. 

We're expecting the storyline to kick off in a big way in the upcoming installment, as secret supe Victoria Neuman continues to explode the heads of anyone standing in her way, Billy Butcher embraces some new abilities of his own, and Homelander dials his "unhinged" behaviour up to 11.

Ackles, though, was being much more literal in his most recent social media post, and referencing the huge, shaggy beard he grew out to play new character Soldier Boy.

"Thanks iPhone for reminding me what I looked like a year ago today," he wrote alongside a couple of selfies taken on set. "All prepped and ready for some #soldierboy action!!! Can't wait for @theboystv S3. It's gonna get hairy."

Set to go toe-to-toe with Homelander, Soldier Boy was once wartime buddies with Aya Cash's Stormfront, who was charred by the former's son in the season 2 finale. The bedraggled look he's sporting in Ackles' snaps checks out when you consider that he doesn't age, he fought in World War II, and, much like Marvel's Captain America, he's found by the gang after a lengthy period of isolation.

"I've been essentially in captivity for a while. And, so, when they do, I'm bearded and I look like Cast Away, but then they clean me up and I get my superhero outfit back on and I go to town," Ackles previously told ComicBook.com. "He's a grandpa. He's from the '40s. He's just this curmudgeon, bigoted asshole. He doesn't age, so he's this young, 40-year-old superhero, who's really 80 years old or 90 years old. There's just so much material there, you'll see what I mean when you see the show, but he has a taste for people who were of his era."

The Supernatural actor isn't the only season 3 newbie, either. Kristin Booth and Jack Doolan, Sean Patrick Flanery, Miles Gaston Villanueva, Nick Wechsler, and The Walking Dead's Laurie Holden as the TNT Twins, Gunpowder, Supersonic, Blue Hawk, and Crimson Countess, respectively.

Also starring Chace Crawford, Erin Moriarity, Nathan Mitchell, Jessie T. Usher, Dominique McElligott, Karen Fukuhara, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capon, Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, and Karl Urban, The Boys season 3 arrives on Prime Video on May 6. 

While we wait, why not check out our breakdown of the best superhero movies of all time. (We promise that most of the good guys listed there aren't actually murderous psychopaths).