With the first two episodes of the fifth season of Prime Video's The Boys debuting this week, we've got just six more weeks to go before Homelander, Butcher, Hughie, Starlight, and all the rest ride off into the sunset. If they're lucky, that is!
But yes, Season 5 is also the final season for the fan-favorite series. And while lots of folks are disappointed that The Boys is coming to an end (including some of the cast), showrunner Eric Kripke is definitive when asked if this is truly the time to say goodbye to this iteration, anyway, of the Boys vs. the Supes.
"Look, you want to go out before people are sick of you, and you want to go out on top, and you always want to leave them wanting more," Kripke told me. "And so I think it's the right time."
The Boys: A Show That Demands an Ending
Kripke knows a thing or two about shows that (practically) never end, having created Supernatural. That series ran for an incredible 15 seasons, although Kripke only served as showrunner for the first five when his initial plan for that show came to its conclusion. It seems now, in the case of The Boys, the natural conclusion is also going to be the actual conclusion.
"I think it's a show that demands an ending," he says of The Boys. "You can't just let it go forever and then peter out. You need it to have a definitive, explosive ending, because so much of it is about the battle between these two teams. And so to just let that keep going over and over again, each time it sucks a little bit of power and juice out of it. There's only so many years that they can go after Homelander and The Seven and almost get there, but not quite, before people start to smell a rat a little bit. So it's time to blow it up."
When asked if she's ready for the end, Erin Moriarty, who plays Starlight/Annie January, is conflicted.
"Yes and no," she says. "I think when it airs, there's going to be a reality to the finality of the show when everyone watches it end and knows that it's over with us. I think now that it's like our own little secret, everything that happens. And the fact that it's really over and we were there to see it end, when it is released, that's what makes it real, to me at least."
The actress says that after living with these characters "intimately and privately" for years now, it is hard to say goodbye to them. But at the same time, "the closure happened in a way that was really cool, that the writers brilliantly executed. But it's going to be even more emotional when it airs, it's over, and we're done with the press. That's going to entail a finality that I can't quite fathom yet."
It's Hard to Be Unemployed
Laz Alonso, who plays Mother's Milk, admits that he didn't initially think that Season 5 should be the end. As his costar Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett) jokes, "It's hard to be unemployed." But as shooting on the season got underway, several of the actors saw their perspective on things change.
"I thought that they still had more in the tank, especially with the world, how it was still evolving," says Alonso. "But during filming it, I realized that it made a lot of sense where we were going and to leave people wanting more. There is something magical about that."
Adds Tomer Capone (Frenchie), "For us as performers, it was satisfying. And I hope that it will translate to the [audience being] just as satisfied with those characters."
Minifie thinks it was "really brave" for Kripke to decide to end the show, impending unemployment notwithstanding (!).
"It's important writing-wise to have an ending," she says. "He could have kept this going for a really long time and it's important I think to have a beginning, middle, and end of a story."
"I think he told the story that he wanted to tell, and that's really important because there's a sort of climax that you want to get to," adds Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko). "I think he got that. Emotionally, as Karen, I am not okay, and I'm having a very hard time saying goodbye. And I would have played Kimiko for the rest of my life! But I think it was the right choice."
The Future of The Boys Universe
Besides, there are always more spin-offs in this universe to look forward to. We already got the animated anthology The Boys Presents: Diabolical, and of course the college-set Gen V has received two seasons so far (though word on a third season has yet to arrive). But there are at least two other series in the works.
When asked what's going on with future stories in The Boys universe, and whether or not there's a chance for more spin-offs beyond the ones that have already been announced, Kripke responds "always."
"The ones we're working on actively are Vought Rising, which is shooting right now, and we're in script development on The Boys Mexico, but there's always an opportunity," says Kripke. "Amazon has made it clear that there's an open door if we have other pitches that we want to take them."
For now, the OG The Boys is finishing out its run on Prime Video weekly.
Talk to Scott Collura @scottcollura.bsky.social, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do both!
source https://www.ign.com/articles/the-boys-showrunner-you-want-to-go-out-before-people-are-sick-of-you