The Boys Showrunner Confirms Comic's Biggest Twist Won't Happen on TV Show

The Boys TV Show confirms the comic's big Black Noir twist won't happen on the series.

By Spencer Perry

Spoilers for The Boys comics will follow! Readers of the original The Boys comic book series may have gone into the Prime Video adaptation thinking they knew where certain characters were heading. In the pages of the source material, Vought supe Black Noir has a secret that isn't revealed until one of the final issues of the series, the entire time he's secretly been a clone of Homelander. Vought had initially planted him on The Seven as a contingency plan to take down Homelander, but he slowly went insane and began committing horrible deeds while dressed as Homelander, things got dramatic. For The Boys TV Show however it became clear that that wasn't going to happen, and it still won't.

Speaking in a new interview with Variety, The Boys showrunner and TV series creator Eric Kripke was specifically asked about the differences in Black Noir from his comic book counterpart. In the TV series the character was revealed to just be a supe in his own right with no connection to Homelander, even now after he's been replaced he's not a clone of Homelander. Kripke went on to confirm that this idea was never going to make it into the show. When asked if the comic book storyline of Black Noir interested him at all, he replied:

"No, and I don't mind saying it. In the comics he's a clone of Homelander this entire time and is actually the one doing all these horrific things. And again, it's a hell of a twist. But it's like, well wait, the villain I've been following isn't really the villain. And mileage varies, and I'm sure fans are mad I'm not going that way, but that felt not as satisfying to me. I'm like, if I'm going to follow this villain, I want this guy to be the villain. So I was never really into the clone idea. Plus, cloning feels like too – I'm going to sound silly – but cloning feels too magical for the show. We try to say that superheroes are the only slippery banana, and that everything else we try to make as grounded as possible."

As comic readers know, the Black Noir reveal in Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comics was a pivotal stepping stone into the larger ending of their narrative. It not only set the stage for Butcher and Homelander's final confrontation, but the final arc of the story that saw even more characters meet their end. Kirpke went ahead and drew a line in the sand about that too, noting the ending for the show will not be the ending from the comics.

"There's some stuff in the comic that we couldn't do even if we wanted to. I think, look, there's some shocking twists in the comic, but I would want them to be just a little more emotionally satisfying. And so the ending I have in mind is – certainly has elements that it's inspired by that. But it's not the ending from the comics."

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In The Boys season 4, Karl Urban stars once again as Billy Butcher, leader of The Boys, which also includes Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell, Laz Alonso as M.M., Tomer Capone as Frenchie, and Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro. Some of the "supes" featured in the series include Antony Starr as Homelander, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, and Chace Crawford as The Deep. Other stars of The Boys include Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett, CEO of Vought International, and Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman.  

The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca's son as well as his job as The Boys' leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it's too late.

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