After the massacre at the end of Gen V’s first season, and the governmental coup at the end of The Boys’ fourth, sophomore year at Godolkin University will be nothing like the one before. By the looks of the newly released trailer, the new season will be focused on seeing the superhero students turn into soldiers.
In the trailer, three of the four Godolkin students captured at the end of the first season—Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Jordan Li (London Thor/Derek Luhu), and Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway)—have been released from the detention center they were locked away in for thwarting the supe uprising incited by Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann). The Godolkin University they find themselves in now is one with a new dean named Cipher (Hamish Linklater of Midnight Mass) who makes his intentions for the Godolkin students very clear. “You are not students. You are soldiers, and you will fight,” he says.
At the end of The Boys’ fourth season, Homelander (Anthony Starr) became the de facto dictator after Vice President-elect Victoria Newman (Claudia Doumit) was murdered and President-elect Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) was arrested for her assassination after Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) released doctored footage showing Singer ordering the hit. His new puppet-in-command, Steven Calhoun (David Andrews), declares martial law and nationally deputizes superheroes, making Homelander the true commander-in-chief. That’s probably why we see posters of Homelander defaced with the word “Resist” spray-painted across them.
Tensions seem to be rising all around, as we see Godolkin University students yelling “Fuck humans” and other students being pit against each other in what appears to be a gladiatorial test to determine who will be the next soldiers to fight in this dumb war. There’s only so much we can learn from a 138-second trailer, but two things are certain: a species war is coming, and the second season of Gen V will debut on Prime Video on September 17.