Back in April, Jensen Ackles went up on stage with Jared Padalecki at a Supernatural fan convention in New Orleans and casually told the gathered crowd that he shot a cameo as Soldier Boy in The Boys spinoff series Gen V, not realizing he was spoiling a massive surprise.

"That's on me," Eric Kripke, showrunner of The Boys and executive producer on Gen V, tells EW. "In his defense, no one broke it down for him on set that it was a huge secret.

I texted him and he felt bad, but it's not his fault." In hindsight, Kripke now sees the benefit of having that information out in the word ahead of time. "Just knowing that Jensen shows up for three f---ing minutes is enough to get a certain amount of the population to watch the show," he says. "Hey, man, at the end of the day, whatever puts the butts in seats is cool with me."

EW previously revealed the first look at Ackles once again donning the Soldier Boy suit on Gen V after his turn in The Boys season 3, and the show's sixth episode "Jumanji" saw the character's return.

Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) used her powers to restore her friends' memories, after she forced them to forget anything to do with the Woods and Sam (Asa Germann). The exertion caused her to have a seizure and inadvertently pull Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and the others into her mind. There, they meet Soldier Boy — or at least the imaginary friend version of Soldier Boy Cate fantasizes about.

Kripke and Gen V showrunner Michele Fazekas discuss the true meaning of this specific cameo.

"It really speaks to how damaged Cate is, because he's an asshole," Kripke says. "Just because Jensen is charming and people love Jensen, the character is like a dinosaur and proceeds to be an asshole in the scene, you know. It speaks to Cate's actually low self-esteem. It's an interesting choice for a sex symbol of someone who is basically verbally abusive."