The Boys is one of the flagship shows of Amazon Prime Video, thanks to its unprecedented take on the superhero genre. The show tells the story of a group of vigilantes who go against a powerful organization that controls the Supes, humans with extraordinary abilities.
The satirical series premiered in 2019 and has aired four seasons, consistently garnering massive viewership. With iconic characters like Homelander and Billy Butcher, the show has become an integral part of pop culture.
The Boys has been renewed for a fifth season, announced in May 2024, ahead of the fourth season’s premiere. A month later, showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that the fifth season would be the final installment of the show.
The Boys will end with season 5
The Boys Season 5 is confirmed to be the last season of the show. The series is ending not because it has been canceled by Prime Video, but due to a creative decision made by the creators. Eric Kripke, the mind behind the show, envisioned it as a five-season story from the very beginning.
The creator explained that with five seasons, they get to rightly establish the characters, set up their conflicts, and give a fitting resolution to the story. Kripke elaborated on why he wants to end the show after five seasons in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and said:
“It might have been because I was trained as a TV writer and there were five acts. It gives you enough time to get to know the characters. You can have your calm-before-the-storm moment, which is kind of what season four is for me. I say calm… you know what I mean. It’s about the characters and then you kick off into a climax.”
Kripke also stated that Homelander vs. Butcher is the central theme of the show. The two have had multiple encounters with each other over the years, which can not go on forever.
They need to have an ultimate showdown and the show can not go on without either of the two. Hence, the makers have decided to end The Boys with the fifth season as the story reaches its natural conclusion.
When will The Boys Season 5 be released?
Though the official release date has not been announced, Karl Urban, who plays Billy Butcher, hinted that the final season will premiere in 2026. “See you in …2 years (wish it was sooner),” he wrote posting a series of pictures on Instagram in July 2024 following the conclusion of season 4.
Erik Kripke also iterated that the fifth installment could debut in 2026. The writer’s room for the final season opened five weeks before season 4 premiere on June 13, 2024. At the time, Kripke told Deadline:
“Usually from about when you start the writers room, and we started like about a month ago, five weeks ago, to when generally you hit the air, it’s about two years and change. I know where I want it to end up, but we spent the first probably four weeks of the room just talking about like overall mythology and where we want the story to go.”
This is in line with the previous release trend followed by the show. While the first two seasons came out yearly in 2019 and 2020, the gap then increased to two years, with seasons 3 and 4 premiering in June 2022 and 2024, respectively.
And while The Boys will come to an end with season 5, the Supe universe will continue in the form of multiple spin-offs. The first spin-off series, Gen V, is already gearing up to release its second season in 2025. Meanwhile, Prime Video has also announced a prequel series set in the 1950s, titled Vought Rising.
For more updates about The Boys and its spin-offs, keep following Soap Central.