The Boys is set to return for its fifth and final season next year (an official premiere date has not been announced, but showrunner Eric Kripke has indicated that we won't have to wait too long), and it sounds like the notoriously violent and unhinged series is going to waste very little time in setting some major emotional stakes.
During a recent panel at FAN EXPO (via Screen Rant), Karl Urban (Billy Butcher) all-but confirmed that we will be losing some main characters - in the very first episode.
"I think we throw you in the deep end, but in a good way, because the stakes are as high as they can possibly be. I think the real thing to look out for in season 5 on an emotional level, as far as the characters go, and your attachments to characters, there's going to be some big hits early on in the very first episode."
"That's probably what is going to make you realize, “Oh, this s--t is for real.” The stakes couldn't be higher, and anybody's fair game," he added.
This doesn't necessarily mean we'll lose anyone from The Boys team itself - or at least, no longtime members!
Potential spoilers follow.
In the comics, pretty much every major character aside from Hughie and Starlight dies, with Butcher ultimately becoming a full-blown villain and taking out most of his own team. The Prime Video series has never been a particularly faithful adaptation, however, so we can't see Kripke being quite so merciless.
Yes, Butcher did embrace his darker side in the season 4 finale, but if he does go down - and we'd say both him and Homelander checking out is a given - there will surely be some redemption involved.
In the season 4 finale, Homelander (Antony Starr) took one step closer to the Oval Office while enacting his plan to round up all anti-Supe protestors and confine them to prison camps. Hughie, Frenchie, Kimiko, and MM were captured, with Starlight and the now even more volatile and unpredictable Butcher still at large.
“There will probably be lots of deaths," Kripke said of the final season during a recentinterview with Deadline. “There’s no guarantee of who’s gonna survive.” Nathan Mitchell (Black Noir) added: “There are some things that are coming in Season 5 that you’re not going to have in your bingo card.”
“I look at the last two seasons … like an accordion,” offered Starr. “One piece of the accordion is going out and then this is the compression going back in. There was a lot of setup in Season 4 for Season 5. Everything is gunning towards that climactic end. So it’s exciting at the moment because we’re filming all that.”
How would you like to see The Boys wrap-up? Drop us a comment down below.