Does the arrival of Crimson Countess – a blatant riff on Marvel’s Scarlet Witch – tease a “Civil War” between Payback and The Seven in The Boys season 3? One of several new supe additions to The Boys in season 3 is Crimson Countess, played by Laurie Holden, who most will know as The Walking Dead fan favorite, Andrea. From her ornate, red costume and witch-like powers, Crimson Countess is plainly a parody of Scarlet Witch (portrayed in the MCU by Elizabeth Olsen), but where Wanda Maximoff joins Marvel’s movie narrative as a relative child, her counterpart in The Boys is far from new to the superhero game.
Crimson Countess makes only a single appearance during Amazon’s first trailer for The Boys season 3, but the short scene teases major ramifications for the likes of Homelander and Starlight. The Boys‘ season 3 trailer shows Crimson Countess at the “Brave Maeve’s Inclusive Kingdom” theme park we saw in season 2. Rather than handing out toffee apples and checking kids are tall enough to ride the roller coaster, she fires a magic blast at an employee wearing a Homelander suit, who promptly explodes in a hail of blood and guts. The trailer doesn’t provide any further context, but we can probably guess this wasn’t part of the day’s planned festivities.
Crimson Countess killing a man inside a Homelander costume could be indicative of a long-standing grudge between her and the Seven – and other details in The Boys support this theory. Eric Kripke (The Boys showrunner) previously confirmed that Crimson Countess works as a Vought Land performer in The Boys, singing to patrons about supe history. Before that, however, the Scarlet Witch parody was a member of Vought’s superhero team Payback, who Kripke describes as an earlier version of the Seven. Elsewhere in The Boys‘ season 3 trailer, an old newspaper clipping reads, “PAYBACK’S POPULARITY SOARS.” These clues could mean Crimson Countess is jealous of how Vought replaced her soaring Payback team with The Seven, and gets so sick of singing about how great Homelander’s gang are to Vought Land’s gullible guests, she finally snaps and kills the guy parading around in a costume of her nemesis.
Crimson Countess’ bubbling hatred for Homelander could potentially spill over into a full-blown The Boys civil war. Joining Laurie Holden as a season 3 newbie is Jensen Ackles, who was cast as Soldier Boy – former leader of Payback – even before season 2’s finale. The Boys has dropped numerous hints (in interviews, in The Boys Presents: Diabolical and in the main show) that just as the Seven replaced Payback, Homelander was designed as a direct successor to Soldier Boy, who The Boys season 3’s trailer shows waking up from some kind of captivity. If the reborn Soldier Boy galvanizes his old team and gets the Payback band back together, they’ll probably look to take down the supes that so coldly replaced them – The Seven. And that won’t end well for anyone.
If The Boys season 3 parodies Marvel’s Civil War, it’s appropriate that Crimson Countess (as a play on Scarlet Witch) should have a role in triggering that conflict. In MCU continuity, Wanda’s powerful magic (and her old pal, Ultron) both contribute to the United Nations’ Sokovia Accords (which Scarlet Witch subsequently refuses to sign), instigating a conflict between Captain American and Iron Man. If The Boys does its own version of this storyline, Crimson Countess’ hatred for Homelander and the The Seven could give the green light for hostilities to begin.
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Author: Craig Elvy
