SOMETIMES, THE BAD guys have to win. The Empire Strikes Back. Avengers: Infinity War. Dune (2021). If an epic story doesn’t show you how real the threat is, is it ever really so epic? And nothing puts a threat on display like ending a story with a couple moments of real, true, hopelessness. Evil is victorious. Good is defeated. And that’s what we have to sit with.
That’s exactly how The Boys decided to close out its penultimate fourth season. After a full season of conspiracy plotting by the Supes with The Boys on the counter, things fully shook out in favor of the Supes—thanks to a masterstroke in planning from Sister Sage (Susan Heyward). After Butcher (Karl Urban) fully gave into the influence of his darker side (the image only he can see of Joe Kessler, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), he gained wild tentacle superpowers (likely from previously taking proper Compound V in an attempt to cure his terminal cancer), and ruined the plan Hughie (Jack Quaid) had in place with Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) to give Homelander up and defeat the Vought once and for all.
But this new, darker, Butcher doesn’t make deals—so instead he used his new tentacles to rip Neuman in half, spilling her guts all over The Boys’s HQ. Plan foiled. And not only was the plan foiled, but Sage was able to orchestrate things so that President-elect Singer (Jim Beaver) was framed for her murder, and the bootlicking Speaker of the House was instated as president. Homelander, fully owning the Speaker’s soul, has effectively taken control of the American government. That’s bad!
Not only is it bad, but its terrifying. The season concludes with martial law being instated, an army of Supe officers taking down anyone deemed a threat to their power, including some of our heroes, like Hughie, MM (Laz Alonso), and more. The only hope, for now, seems to be Starlight (Erin Moriarty) jetting off into the sky, and the loose cannon Butcher driving away with a deadly virus capable of 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing all Supes.
Things are, uh, getting wild. Luckily, we’ve got a whole season—a final season—to figure it all out.
Will The Boys have a season 5?
Yes! There will be a season 5 of The Boys, and it will be the final season. “Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought,” creator Eric Kripke said just before the premiere of the show’s fourth season. “Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax.”
So, yes, get ready to see the story of The Boys come to a thrilling, satirical, exciting, and, of course, super duper bloody conclusion in season 5.
When will The Boys season 5 come out?
We’re looking at a 2026 release for season 5, which will mark the end of The Boys. This comes from an Instagram posted by Karl Urban (who plays Billy Butcher), where he discussed the end of the season and working with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who played Joe Kessler, aka the voice inside his head).
“That’s all @theboystv for now folks,” he wrote. “See you in …2 years (wish it was sooner) for the final season.”
What will The Boys season 5 be about?
What will The Boys season 5 not be about? Chief among things, of course, will be the rise of fascism in the United States, as Homelander has effectively taken hold of the entire government and is having any of his political and personal opponents locked up and sent to camps (as was his plan all along).
His fellow members of The Seven—including Firecrcacker, a more-villainous-than-before The Deep and an along-for-the-ride Black Noir II—are all very potent villains. An interesting layer with our villains will be to see how Homelander and Sister Sage’s relationship progresses, especially in light of Ryan drifting away, and Homelander discovering the frozen body of Soldier Boy. Will Sage remain on Homelander’s side? Or will she get bored, and try to find a way to get him to self-destruct? That much remains to be seen.
Annie and Butcher are still free, and could be the key to defeating the villains (though Butcher is on the fast track to becoming a villain himself). Hughie, M.M., Kimiko, and Frenchie are all in some state of captivity, and will need to find their ways out. There’s also A-Train, who had a wonderful redemption arc in season 4, and may be a secret weapon for defeating Homelander in season 5 (along with Queen Maeve, if she can be found anywhere).
And one last major question—what the hell happened to Ashley after she took Compound V? She’s going to have some kind of increased powers/abilities, but we don’t quite know what just yet. That much is going to remain a mystery, probably, until the season 5 premiere.
Who will be in the cast?
All of the obvious cast members will return, led by Antony Starr, Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Chace Crawford, etc.
It also is clear, from the finale’s post-credits scene, that Jensen Ackles will once again return to the fold as Soldier Boy.
The biggest questions, probably, are whether we’ll see the defected supes return; will Jessie T. Usher (A-Train) and Dominique McElligott (Queen Maeve) be back to fight the good fight? We’ll have to see. Another Giancarlo Esposito appearance as Stan Edgar seems likely as well, considering he escaped captivity and is out and about.
Cast members who won’t return, we would assume, are the characters who are no longer with us. That means Claudia Doumit (Victoria Neuman), Laila Robbins (Grace Mallory), and Simon Pegg (Hughie Sr.) are likely out. Thank you for your service to three truly great The Boys performers! Their contributions to the show were genuinely great, and they will be missed.
