Homelander’s Fate in The Boys Finale Officially Addressed by Creator [Exclusive]

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Boys‘ Season 5 finale. It all came down to this. The Boys’ series finale, “Blood and Bone”, opened with the remaining Boys members mourning their fallen friend, Frenchie. After provoking Kimiko into manifesting an energy burst that stripped Sister Sage of her intellectual abilities, the team plot a course of action to eliminate Homelander. The plan? Depower the self-described god so Butcher can kill him. Along the way, Hughie and Mother’s Milk took out Oh Father. Annie confronted the Deep, and after she blasted him into the ocean, his angry former fishy friends slaughtered him.

The main event, however, took place in the Oval Office between Butcher, Kimiko, Ryan and Homelander, where Butcher jabbed a crowbar through his neutralized opponent’s skull. Showrunner Eric Kripke spoke exclusively to ComicBook about wrapping up storylines, casualties and the future of The Boys Cinematic Universe. 

This show has been about Homelander’s descent into madness and the Boys’ rise to end that reign. How did you want to pay it all off and deliver a satisfying conclusion?

Eric Kripke: I felt like the things we were really aiming for as we were breaking that final episode was making sure everybody gets their moment, where Hughie gets to use his technological skills. Even Ashley does the right thing once. Kimiko gets to get payback and MM gets to use Chekhov’s ball gag. And, then, Ryan obviously gets in there. But, then, it comes down to Butcher and Homelander and we really wanted to take Homelander’s powers away. That was something we had been thinking about from the very start of the season. As many characters say to him throughout this season… “You take your powers away and you’re nothing.” We wanted to demonstrate that and what a weak, simpering coward he is once you have removed his powers, as are, frankly, many strong men. 

There’s plenty of blood and brutal deaths in this episode. As you were developing the script, were any other characters on the chopping block? And what alternate crazy methods of killing did you discuss when devising their demises?

Luckily, because we had so carefully laid out where we wanted the characters to end up, there wasn’t a lot to debate. The bigger thing was we knew who was going to live and we knew who was going to die. And the ones that were going to die, we knew how they were going to die, episodes ago. In episode three or four, Ashley and Oh Father had talked about ball gags and “we really need to get you a stronger ball gag.” This stuff has been layered in really carefully. We knew for sure that we were very slowly, methodically, building towards Deep’s death of the ocean animals finally turning against him because he has always been so shitty to them. From him eating sushi to the oil pipeline, it’s all been building towards that moment. Homelander, of course. We always knew where those guys were going to end up. The bigger challenge was making sure everyone got a heroic moment of the Boys moving through that sequence.

It was rewarding and full-circle to see Starlight face off against the Deep.

Exactly. There were so many things in there that had to happen. I was definitely not interested in doing the subversive, “The audience wants this, so I am not giving it to them.” The audience has earned the right to get what they want. Annie handled the Deep. Butcher to handle Homelander. Hughie to handle Butcher.

There’s still numerous surviving Boys and Gen V characters out and about.  Have we seen the last of them? Do you have plans for those supes?

At least in terms of The Boys characters, if we see them or not, their story has been told. Can we find ways for them to cameo and pop up again? Sure. But I think, by and large, we’ve told that story. The Gen V kids… I’d love to continue that story. I think we have left money on the table. There’s more there in terms of how those characters can evolve into fully realized heroes. 

It’s shocking and disappointing that we are not getting a third season of Gen V.

I know, man. Ultimately, there were just not enough viewers to justify the expense in Amazon’s eyes. It just came down to that. I tried. I really tried hard. I am bummed, for sure. But a couple of the senior writers from The Boys, and also from Vought Rising, are putting together ideas that they are passionate about. We will only do them if one, they are totally different from The Boys. Two, if somebody is really passionate about it and it’s not just a piece of commerce, if it’s idiosyncratic and weirdly shaped and something somebody loves. I know that makes a difference.

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