When Hughie Campbell returns to The Boys next season, he'll be venturing into a profession more nefarious than fighting superheroes on the ground: U.S. politics.
During an interview with TV Guide, showrunner Eric Kripke discussed how Hughie's (Jack Quaid) future role assisting Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) and the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs will influence his character arc and relationship with Neuman. "They will have evolved a friendship by the time we see them again. But obviously, we have this big sword hanging over their heads of her real identity and why she's doing what she's doing, which we'll unpack in Season 3," Kripke teased.
As for how Hughie will do in this new job environment, Kripke explained that helping Neuman in Season 3 will both play to his strengths and, in traditional The Boys fashion, create unforeseen consequences. "The thing about Hughie is he's not particularly good at the ultra-violence, but he's very competent, and I think we wanted to show that off [via Neuman]," he continued. "He's very smart, he's a good investigator, he's amazing with technology, he has great ideas. We wanted a chance to showcase him doing what he does best and seeing that he's really strong, and an able character in the fight against supes. But of course, it's all going to go sh-- on him."
The Boys' Season 2 finale showed the Boys team members going their separate ways and Hughie joining Neuman's re-election team in support of her Congressional oversight agenda toward superheroes, the Seven and Vought International. However, the finale also revealed Neuman to be the mystery head-exploding metahuman who had been secretly killing individuals with knowledge on Vought's ulterior motives all season long, including CIA deputy director Susan Raynor, Vought scientist Jonah Vogelbaum and Church of the Collective leader Alastair Adana. It's currently unclear how this twist will tie into the plot and Neuman's characterization. In The Boys comics series, Victor Neuman was a parody of then-President George W. Bush, while the show's version of the character is loosely based on New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Amazon Studios' The Boys stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Chace Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander and Aya Cash as Stormfront. Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: TV Guide