Spoiler alert: this article contains details about the first three episodes of season 4 the boysavailable today on Amazon Prime Video.
“Do you realize it’s gonna be harder to stage a fucking coup when a million eyes are on me?” Sage (Susan Hayward) complains to her superhero boss Homelander (Antony Starr) in Season 4, Episode 3. the boys.
In any other show, that would mean saying the quiet parts out loud, but this is a Prime Video series helmed by Eric Kripke, so a mad Superman plan to take over the White House is just one of many spiked flails that shake up the story and are now things we know for sure. the boys‘ The penultimate season.
There’s a close call when Homelander orders a super blowjob, a disgruntled A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) becomes a spy for MM’s (Laz Alonso) Boys, and a whole lot of lingo from new member of The Seven, Firecracker (Valorie Curry), that you might have heard from Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Megyn Kelly. There’s Homelander’s murder trial wrapped up in Homelander’s favor, grooming accusations against Starlight (Erin Moriarty), some kind of horrifying Pizzagate re-enactment, loads of chemicals injected into a lot of people on both sides, and a bloody holiday vibe. Vote on Iceand some that are not so pleasant. The Masked Singer Elon Musk mentioned.
There are also presidential elections that are contested after the votes are counted.
Oh, there are cameos from Will Ferrell and Tilda Swindon, and the show’s main character, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), is near death.
(From left) Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford, Jack Quaid, Eric Kripke, Claudia Doumit, Laz Alonso and Antony Starr (Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
On June 11, it was announced that season 5 would be the last for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as executive producers. the boysShowrunner Kripke spoke to Deadline today about what to expect, how the show will get there in season 4, and what he has in store for the future. the walking dead With alumni joining the series, there may be even more to come.
deadline: So why do you want to end the show after five seasons?
Eric Kripke: (Laughs) Five seasons is a good number. I like the number five.
deadline: why?
Kripke: I’ve been thinking about it, and I guess it’s kind of like being trained as a TV writer for five acts, so it makes sense to me that you need enough time to really get to know the characters, but not so long that it wears out its welcome.
DEADLINE: Speaking of outgrowing your welcome. the boys It may end with season 5, but the series will continue with Gen V, a Mexican spinoff, and probably more, so it’s not really over, right?
Kripke: I mean, I still want to be involved. I still have a lot of life to live, and this is the best job I’ve ever had. But I won’t be the day-to-day showrunner, at least for these shows. I’ll write notes on the scripts and help with story development when needed, but I’m not going to be busy 24/7.
deadline: Based on Season 4 so far, it seems Butcher isn’t going to struggle either due to the effects of taking Temp V.
Already relegated to the sidelines by the CIA in season four’s opening episode, Butcher seems to be reinvigorated with the arrival of his old pal Joe Kessler, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Kessler is now a character in The Boys comics, but he already seems to have a bigger role here. So where does this penultimate season leave him and Butcher?
Kripke: The original view was that Butcher was a madman and that nearly everyone around him was trying to stop him.
deadline: Of course…
Kripke: Yeah, well. So we thought it would be interesting to take him forward, to create a character who might be more combative towards superheroes than he is. And we thought that would be an explosive nightmare. Basically, essentially, we started talking about we needed another Butcher, which is obviously not an easy task.
To make that happen, you need another lead actor who is as charismatic and as good as Carl, and you need to put the two of them on an equal footing. Thankfully, Jeffrey and I had been texting back and forth. We had been looking for him for a while, and when he was finally available and this role came up, I was like, “Oh my God, this is the part for me.” And it turned out that way.
deadline: Even in the first three episodes it feels like they’re setting up Jeffrey Dean. boy Spin-off.
Kripke: (Laughs) If Jeffrey wants to do it and it works out, who wouldn’t want to play Jeffrey Dean? boy Spin-off?
deadline: How about a spinoff about Sage? A new character who is the smartest person on the planet. A mostly naive black woman who Homelander tracks down and apparently has his phone number. Sage is Vought International, but she’s the real deal. And Puppet Master. What is that?
Kripke: we boyIan is a take on the typical comic book trope of superheroes whose brains are their strength. They’re super smart, but they’re always weak white guys…
deadline: Like Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four…
Kripke: Yes. What we thought was interesting and inspiring is that the smartest person in the world could be anyone. But what if that person is a black woman from a poor neighborhood? It’s really hard for anyone to listen to her and take her seriously. So the irony is that the smartest person in the world who can fix all of society’s ills is the person no one listens to.
We thought that was really interesting and it also helped us understand why she’s such a misanthrope – she has a history of not being listened to and that’s what’s really tormenting her and making her hate humanity.
deadline: In a climate of hatred towards humanity, murderer Homelander is put on trial in a Trump scenario, Starlight supporters are accused of murder, and even a head explodes, fueling divisions in America. There’s a presidential election to kick off Season 4. There’s betrayal aplenty. Because, the boysBut what do you think about throwing something like this storyline in the middle of an election that’s stranger than any fiction you’ve ever created?
Kripke: So that’s where the story has been heading from the beginning, at least from the moment Victoria Newman (Claudia Doumit) was introduced early in Season 2. We were always heading here, which means that the whole story was really heading there.
Incidentally, a version of this story is one of the major storylines in the comic books.
deadline: yes.
Kripke: “It was an election year, so I think this is special for a show that’s always tried to stay current and in tune with the times. I think this is another reality lineup for the show.”
Lest you think this is too much or too realistic, folks, there are plenty more explosions, lasers coming out of their eyes, penises being used in new and exciting ways, and so much more.
deadline: Yes, but the context is relevant. It also stinks of Trump even more than it did before. At least to Homelander and a few others,“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters,” Trump said in 2016.
Kripke: Well, I certainly feel that way, and I think a lot of writers feel that way, but it’s scary and anxiety-producing, at least for the near future. So we’re just expressing how we feel. We’re not trying to change minds. We’re just trying to communicate my own fears and anxieties about the year ahead.
deadline: As the saying goes, this is yet another story ripped from the headlines.
Kripke: Yeah, unfortunately, the real world has evolved to reflect the show more, where things get so crazy and off the rails and happen so frequently in reality now, that if someone had suggested that, in the writers’ room we would have said, that’s too far-fetched or insane.
deadline: So now that we’re into the penultimate season and wrapping up season 5, what’s next for you?
Kripke: Oh well, season 5 is easily two years away, so there’s still very little time to worry about what’s next.
deadline: no?
Kripke: No, normally, once we start working in the writers’ room, we started working a month ago, five weeks ago, but it’s going to be a couple of years before we start airing. It’s a little early to be completely committed to what I’m going to do next. But I’m going to be focused on finishing this, and then I’ll take a nap, and then we’ll see what happens after that.
deadline: Meanwhile, you officially announced earlier this week that the show will end after five seasons. So where is season five now? What kind of bloody mess will this end in?
Kripke: We’re just figuring it all out with the writers right now. I mean, we know where we want it to end up, but the first four weeks were just in a room talking about the overall mythology and where we want to go with the story…
deadline: A rough outline?
Kripke: As broadly as possible, and what I want to happen at the end. I know the moment when the title card comes up and it says six months later and we find out where everyone is. I know that. I could write the last 10 pages of this story right now.
As for the rest, as you know, we have a rough plan, but we will work it out.
deadline: Has that always been your approach?
Kripke: To be honest, I think there’s a danger in trying to think too much into it. You want to leave yourself a little bit of room to maneuver before you actually split the episodes. You want the writers to feel like they can surprise you with something. You don’t want to tighten things up too much.
deadline: That’s season 5, but what about the recently released, cameo-packed season 4?
Kripke: I love it!
I’m excited to get this piece out into the world, it’s been two and a half years of preparation, including the strike. It took two and a half years from when I first started until it was finished.
Watch it, it will make you laugh, it will have you covering your mouth in fear many times, and I think they really go deep into each character.
deadline: But there must have been a blueprint. Eric, you’ve been hinting for a while that this show would run for five seasons…
Kripke: Yeah, we knew it had five seasons, even though we weren’t allowed to talk about it.
But the penultimate season marks the end of the second act of the film. It’s kind of the darkest point, the most introspective point. It’s the point where the characters have to emotionally confront their existential trauma. And then we get the rollercoaster ride that is the climax of the film.
deadline: It’s very cinematic.
Krikpe: right?
Season 4 is heartbreaking for us because each character is dealing with their most traumatic issues. But at the same time, it’s also very, very funny. I have to say that this show is as dark as people make it out to be, and it is. At the same time, I think this season has made me laugh the most so far. This may speak to my own morbidity, but I think season 4 is really funny.
