What now for ‘The Boys’ universe after that momentous finale?
Premiering in 2019, Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name, written by Garth Ennis and co-created, designed, and illustrated by Darick Robertson. The hyper-violent superhero TV show has borrowed heavily from the comics for both characters and plot points, but hasn’t been afraid of doing its own thing either, satirising the ongoing political turmoil of the United States and poking fun at other superhero franchises.
Following the exploits of rag-tag group The Boys as they try to curtail the power and corruption of superheroes, season four of The Boys was election year, with the fate of the entire world seemingly hanging in the balance as the two sides wrestled for control using shady deals, blackmail, violence and fake news. Spoiler alert – things did not end well for our heroes.
The comic book series of The Boys wrapped up after 72 issues in 2012, with the eight-issue epilogue Dear Becky following in 2020. It’s now been confirmed that The Boys TV show will end after season five – but what can fans expect from the future of the franchise?
How did The Boys season 4 end?
Spoiler alert!
Season four saw both The Boys and manic superhero Homelander (Anthony Starr) backing a different political candidate during an election year. Democratic presidential candidate Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) wanted to remove super-powered individuals from all government positions with the backing of the CIA, while his Vice President-elect was secret head-popping supe Victoria Neumann (Claudia Doumit) who wanted the presidency for herself.
Things rarely go according to plan in The Boys and season four ended with Singer in jail after seemingly ordering the assassination of Neumann, with Senator Calhoun (David Andrews) becoming President. His first order of business? Declaring Martial Law and deputising hundreds of supes under the direct command of Homelander. As he threatens in the dying moments of season four, “a new age of superheroes begins”.
This means The Boys are now enemies of the state, and Frenchie (Tomer Capone), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) Hughie (Jack Quaid), Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and M.M (Laz Alonso) end season four by trying to flee the country – before a majority are captured by Homelander’s new army of supes. As for Butcher (Karl Urban), he’s last seen speeding down a highway with ghostly devil-on-his-shoulder Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and a virus that could potentially cause a pandemic that kills all super-powered individuals.
Will there be a season five of The Boys?
You betcha
A fifth season of The Boys was green-lit in the days leading up to season four’s premiere. Showrunner Eric Kripke had previously hinted that he was looking to wrap up the series in the near future, but he used the renewal to finally confirm that season five would be the last season of The Boys. “Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought,” he wrote on social media. “Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax. Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun,” he added.
#TheBoys Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season! Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax. Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun! pic.twitter.com/3p7Wt4jGA6
— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) June 11, 2024
With filming due to start at the end of the year and continue into 2025, it looks like season five of The Boys will air at some point in 2026.
What can fans expect from season five of The Boys?
Everything and anything
As well as dealing with the immediate fallout of what’s come before, season five of The Boys will feature a number of confrontations that have been seeded across the show. After betraying the rest of his team by ripping Neumann in half with his new tentacle powers and dooming them to a life on the run, Butcher has seemingly burned the last of his bridges with the gang. Season four ended with both Kimiko and Starlight still at large, and you can imagine revenge will be on the cards – especially with Butcher potentially unleashing a global pandemic that will painfully kill all super-powered individuals, including them.
However, Butcher has another target in his sights. With just a few months to live, he’s trying to do right by Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), who is the biological child of Homelander and his dead wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten). Ryan is perhaps the only person on earth who can take out the tyrannical Homelander, but he also poses just as much of a risk – especially now he’s got a few kills under his belt. The battle for his soul is likely going to be a key part of season five of The Boys.
Fans can also expect the return of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) after his brief cameo at the end of season four, while both the newly-orphaned, tentacle-mouthed Zoe (Olivia Morandin) and the scheming, highly connected Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) will want to see Butcher pay for murdering Neumann.
It also seems like Homelander essentially becoming President Of The United States was only the beginning of Sister Sage’s (Susan Heywood) grand social experiment. As she said at the end of season four “buckle up for phase two”.
What about spin-offs?
When something’s good it’s never gone
Alongside the mainline series, The Boys has inspired a number of spin-offs. The Boys Presents: Diabolical was an eight-episode animated anthology that premiered in 2022 and explored the wider world of the show, toying with tone, attitude and canon in the process. With three episodes set in the world of The Boys, another taking place in the comic book universe and the rest existing in their own multiverse, Diabolical could easily continue after The Boys has ended. Following the release of the first season, executive producer Seth Rogan confirmed scripts were being written for another season but he wasn’t sure if they’d be picked up by Prime Video, and nothing has been confirmed since.
Then there’s Gen V. A live-action show set at Godolkin University, it featured a number of teenage supes as they got to grips with their power and the corruption that comes with being a beloved superhero. The show not only introduced the supe-killing virus that’s become an ongoing threat in the main show, but both “The Guardians Of Godolkin” (Asa Germann’s Sam Riordan and Maddie Phillips’ Cate Dunlap) have crossed over into The Boys as part of Team Homelander. They were last seen separating Kimiko from a brainwashed Frenchie, and have their own Vought-produced movie coming out.
As for the real heroes of Gen V, Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh) and Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo) ended the series trapped in a secret hospital, with seemingly no chance of escape. A second season has already been confirmed, and had been due to start production in April but was delayed following the tragic death of Chance Perdomo. Production eventually began in May, with creators saying they weren’t going to recast the character of Andre but season two would “honour” his legacy.
With a number of The Boys also captured by Team Homelander at the end of the main series, there are plenty of chances for meaningful crossovers in season two, but Gen V could very well carry on beyond the end of The Boys as well, acting as an epilogue or evolving into its own thing entirely. There have also been reports of a Spanish-language take on The Boys set in Mexico City being developed by Prime Video.
We’ve seen with The Walking Dead that the end doesn’t always mean the end, with a number of new spin-offs continuing that story. The Boys is one of Prime Video’s most successful shows, boasting a rich universe to explore, so there’s every chance of more spin-offs coming out after the main series wraps.
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Ali Shutler
NME
