When The Boys kicked off Season 1 with A-Train speed-exploding Hughie’s girlfriend into a red mist, it wasn’t yet clear how massive the comic book adaptation would become. Now, after five years and a totally nutso fourth season finale, the Boys-chise (gotta rethink that one) is expanding more than ever with Gen V Season 2 heading for the 2025 TV premiere schedule, as well as the Jensen Ackles-starring prequel spinoff Vought Rising. These are exciting times, but creator Eric Kripke isn’t getting lazy.
Rather, the showrunner remains dedicated to giving The Boys fans all the carnage and satire we’re used to, and is feeling all the stress that one might expect comes with building such a politically fueled series. Speaking with Collider, Kripe addressed the hypothetical albatross around his neck when it comes to keeping this universe going full speed ahead, saying:
We’re gonna look at the chips we have on the table right now. I live in absolute terror of becoming the thing we’ve been satirizing for five years. The thing about The Boys is that it’s punk rock, and it hurts extra hard when punk rockers sell out. I’m really working hard to not sell out.
At this point, it’s hard to know what “selling out” would even constitute for a streaming series co-produced by one of the biggest companies on the planet. If The Boys produced as much ridiculous merchandise as KISS or Friends, it’d be seen as a satirical extension of Vought’s hyper-consumerist strategies. If the producers decided to kick off a real-life Vought On Ice tour across the country, it would no doubt be widely embraced and celebrated as big-budget kitsch.
As such, the most likely way to sell out with The Boys would be to craft a fifth and final season that doesn’t stand up to expectations from everyone waiting to finally see Billy Butcher go head to head with Homelander. But the idea behind building up more spinoffs is so that Kripke & Co. can dig into arcs that wouldn’t necessarily fit into the flagship series’ final stretch, which he speaks to below:
We do these shows because we really care about them and we’re passionate about them, and they can tell fresh stories that we can’t tell in The Boys and not just be about rapid expansion but be very careful and mindful about the choices we’re making and being able to defend why we’re making them. I worry about that every single day. I just want people to say, maybe it’s for them and maybe it isn’t for them, but gotta hand it to them, they maintain a consistent level of quality.
I love the idea of someone who doesn’t like The Boys at all having the maturity and wherewithal to step back and say, “I don’t like it, but the quality is consistent.” If only that were closer to reality than the entirety of Vought’s entertainment foothold. You know the old saying, “Defend the Murderboner,” or something like that.
In the coming months, we’ll be patiently waiting for more Season 5 news, with Daveed Diggs’ casting being one of the only big updates to surface. In the meantime, relive all four seasons of The Boys and the first Gen V season with a Amazon Prime subscription.