The Boys Creator Reveals Latest Homelander Twist Wasn't Always Planned

Full spoilers for this week's episode of The Boys! Fans of The Boys were shaken to their core this week when the Prime Video series offered a major twist that fundamentally changes a lot about the show, the reveal that Homelander's biological father is none other than Soldier Boy. The revelation has been teased throughout the season and even the series at large, but speaking in a new interview series creator Eric Kripke confirms that it wasn't always their plan when they started working on season three. Kripke confirmed to Variety that the idea came late in the process and forced them to re-work some of the previous episodes too. 

"There's the obvious [reason], which is Soldier Boy was like the first Homelander. So there's a certain logic that he is the father of the current Homelander," Kripke revealed. "But it was more about really slowing down and paying attention to the themes of the season as they were evolving. And really, in so many ways, this season is about fathers and sons. It's about how fathers can pass their trauma, generationally, to their children, especially this toxic masculinity of policing that their boys have to be society's version of masculine."

He continued, "There's all of these themes that are all floating around and it all kind of lands in these father-to-son stories. We talk about Hughie and his dad, Butcher and his dad, Butcher and his son, Homelander and his son. It wasn't the very first plan from the beginning, but as we were just talking through the mythology of the season, someone pitched it and said, 'Crazy pitch, but what if...?' And I jumped all over it. I'm like, of course, because many of our main characters are dealing with issues of their parents and parenting – Mother's Milk, also – Homelander should have to deal with his dad. So it all fell together."

In the final scene of the latest episode of the series Homelander learns the truth, with Soldier Boy himself revealing that Homelander is the product of a "genetics experiment" that began with Soldier Boy's sperm. "Turns out Vogelbaum made a kid, born spring 1981," Soldier Boy says. "My boy. If they had just kept me around, I'd have let you take the spotlight. What father wouldn't want that for his son?"

The first seven episodes of The Boys season three are now streaming, with just one left before the season concludes. Amazon Prime Video has already renewed the series for season four, with production starting later this year.