WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Gen V Season 2’s finale. The jig is up. Turns out Gen V’s Season-two Big Bad isn’t the swarmy Cipher, but the school’s founding father, the godlike Thomas Godolkin. A powerful master manipulator capable of puppeteering his victims into carrying out his bidding, Godolkin controlled the innocent Doug, aka Cipher, until his burned, crispy body was healed. Now up and running at full strength, the unhinged Godolkin began culling the supes population, eliminating those he deemed weak and pathetic.
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Gen V’s sophomore year comes to a close as the gifted youngsters – Sam, Emma, Cate, Jordan, Marie, and her sister, Annabeth – engage Godolkin in one final, bloody battle royale. And the gang’s revolting Hail Mary of a Trojan Horse might just pay off… unless somebody’s head gets blown to smithereens, first.
During a spoiler-filled conversation, Gen V boss Eric Kripke broke down Gen V Season 2’s ending: speaking about the coming of Godolkin, continuing Gen V’s adventures, The Boys’ fifth season, Marie’s hypothetical rematch with Homelander, more Golden Boy and what to expect from Vought Rising.
This season set up Godolkin as the possible solution to the Homelander and corrupt supes dilemma. What were the conversations behind Godolkin’s return?
A lot of that came from Michele Fazekas, one of the executive producers of Gen V. They just had this great twist they pitched, that I just loved. You felt like this weird, crispy critter that Cipher was keeping around might be the solution. But it turns out that Marie gets manipulated into unleashing the big villain of the show. That, of course, all goes back to Godolkin. In hindsight, you are like, “Of course. He was Frederick Vought’s right-hand man. Of course, he’s rotten to the core and is going to be the villain.” It was so fun watching Hamish Linklater play seven episodes of the creepiest possible villain as Cipher. Then, one episode he is this innocent chucklehead. He does such a beautiful job at both. It was a pleasure to watch.
How do you feel he pushes the Gen V characters in the finale and moving forward? What are some of the ramifications of the gang’s encounter with him?
They are really learning that Godolkin is a shitty place to go to school. Without some sort of massive change in that school, you reach a point where you are like, “OK, I think I’ve had it with that school.”
But what really drives them forward into their next step is those final moments of Gen V, when Annie and A-Train appear and invite them to join this resistance. That really sets the table moving forward into The Boys Season 5. It really is the kickoff, the beginning, of an underground resistance against Homelander’s fascist government. They are outmanned and outgunned, but they are making a push. When The Boys starts, it’s six months after this and we really dive into the middle because we have set the table.
As much as we are thrilled to see these Gen V characters transition over to The Boys, does that mean no more Gen V series? Do we still have, fingers crossed, hope for a third season?
No, we would love to do a third season. In terms of their appearance on The Boys, it’s the similar balance, which is they are important players. They provide crucial information, but we’ve been very careful to keep The Boys to The Boys and Gen V to Gen V, and have them both be separate shows and not some combined goopy mess. I think that continues. There is more Gen V story to tell. We would love to do a Season 3. There is a pitch on it that I genuinely love. It’s so good. But it all depends on the ratings for Season 2. All those people in TV Land, if you are thinking of watching Gen V, watch it now. Don’t wait a year from now. Let’s get a Season 3.
Marie has been tooted as powerful as Homelander. The two already butted heads once. Have you envisioned how a rematch might play out? What would you like to see?
Obviously, what I would like to see is Homelander get his ass kicked. He deserves it. The truth is just because Marie is very powerful, it doesn’t mean she knows how to control it. She is still just a kid. She is not Neo at the end of The Matrix. Marie has a lot of growing to do, and a lot of setbacks and challenges. And she should. That’s what makes the character interesting… the struggle. With all that being said, I don’t know if a direct confrontation with Homelander would go so great. And, there is a lot of people in line and waiting to bitch slap Homelander.
We love us some Patrick Schwarzenegger. Did you have any talks about somehow bringing Golden Boy back into the fold?
We did. We did. If I remember correctly, there were a couple of dream sequences. I forget who was having the dreams. Maybe Sam, but 100 percent it made its way to the outlines where Golden Boy was showing up. But Patrick… I think he was shooting some tiny show about a hotel. I don’t know. Some tiny indie thing. I don’t think anyone saw it [laughter]. Obviously, he was doing White Lotus and was super-busy with that and the press. I don’t think we could work out the schedules, if I remember correctly. But he’s checked in with us and has been nothing but lovely. I would work with him again in a heartbeat. He is such a good, nice, genuine guy.
The BCU – The Boys Cinematic Universe – keeps expanding. We have Vought Rising currently filming in Toronto. In what ways is that going to fill in some of the gaps, or give us a new perspective, on what’s going on in this world?
I think it will do a really surprising job filling in the gaps, in some ways, I don’t want to give it away, and you are not expecting. It certainly sets up a lot of the origins of Vought. But it also takes some interesting left turns that I think will surprise people and give them more information about the state of play and the universe than they are expecting.
All episodes of Gen V Season 2 are available to stream now. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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