The Boys Season 4 spoilers follow.
With The Boys Season 4’s hotly anticipated finale now out in the wild (complete with accompanying warning from Amazon), fans are wondering what’s next for Billy Butcher and co heading into the fifth and final season.
The Boys Season 4 Episode 8, which Amazon retitled to ‘Season 4 Finale’ following the assassination attempt on former U.S. president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump, leaves The Boys “at their low point,” creator Eric Kripke told LadBible.
As IGN’s The Boys Season 4 ending explained details, Butcher with his newfound tentacle power is set for a showdown with supervillain Homelander following the death of Victoria Neuman, the imprisonment of President Singer, and the rest of The Boys either captured or, in the case of Starlight, on the run.
Homelander ends Season 4 hell bent on throwing anyone who disagrees with his new order into internment camps. In short, the entire world is going to s**t and it looks like only a demented Billy Butcher (and possibly a returning Soldier Boy) can do anything about it.
Kripke called this setup The Boys’ version of the apocalypse, and evidence that the show was designed from the very beginning to end with Season 5.
“You know, I think the finale of Season 4 really shows you that we’ve been planning five years all along, because there’s no way a show goes one more season after the events of that finale,” he said.
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s our show’s version of the apocalypse.”
The Boys, Kripke said, are left “at their lowest point”, with Homelander set to “completely remake the United States in his image, and according to his whims.”
Kripke calls this the equivalent of the end of the second act in a typical three-act movie.
“I always look at it as of the five seasons, we’re kind of at that point, that’s sort of the end of the second act of a movie where everyone’s really at their low point, and they’ve all faced their own personal demons,” he said.
“Now, they need to really come together in the fifth season and save the world.”
But will The Boys actually end with Season 5? Laz Alonso, who plays The Boys team leader Mother’s Milk, wants a The Boys film to wrap up the series. There’s also the ongoing spin-off Gen V, set for Season 2.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.