Fans of The Boys, rejoice — or don’t. Showrunner Eric Kripke has recently walked back his original plan for the hit Prime Video series to span a potential five seasons. The superhero satire first premiered in July 2019 and was met with such a huge response from the audience that it was renewed for a second season a week before its premiere date. After Prime Video announced The Boys had been renewed for a fifth season, Kripke remarked to Inverse, “I have learned since then to not try to call the seasons as the person who, and this is without hyperbole, is literally the most wrong in entertainment history of how many seasons their show should go.”
However, this announcement has set off alarm bells for those viewers who fear scrapping the show’s original plan spells disaster for the Emmy-winning series. Differences in opinion between showrunners and the audience are common, and attempts to appease viewers can often be detrimental to the quality of a popular series, but this time the answer is clear: The Boys doesn’t need more than five seasons.
‘The Boys’ Has a Built-In Natural Conclusion
Having initially planned for five seasons, Kripke also likely had a five-season arc mapped out for The Boys. This means that plotlines and character arcs set up from the first season have a planned trajectory to follow to deliver a satisfying ending. Suddenly deciding to add more seasons of The Boys than originally planned after the intended penultimate season, Season 4, throws a monkey wrench in these trajectories. If new seasons are to be added without prior planning, certain character arcs will have to be extended and new plotlines will need to be added, which can water down the effectiveness of a a pre-planned story.
The Boys is already loosely based on the comic series of the same name, but the first three seasons, and likely fourth, seem to be building to the comics’ natural conclusion. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), former Vought CEO Victor Neuman in the comics, is making a play for power as Dakota Bob’s (Jim Beaver) running mate and will likely follow her comic book counterpart in becoming President of the United States. Homelander (Antony Starr) is becoming increasingly deranged and volatile, especially after Season 3’s shocking ending, and is likely to attempt the comics’ superhero coup d’état against the US government.
Meanwhile, Billy Butcher’s (Karl Urban) downward spiral that ends in his and Hughie (Jack Quaid) deaths seems increasingly likely given his terminal diagnosis in Season 3, and the comics’ mind-blowing, Shyamalan-esque twist that Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) was created as the anti-Homelander (and the one who’s been committing Homelander’s most atrocious acts), is the perfect conclusion to this iteration of The Boys. Deviating too far from the show’s natural conclusion, or padding its runtime, has the real possibility to seriously weaken The Boys’ quality and reputation.
A Longer Story Doesn’t Equal a Better One for ‘The Boys’
While the popularity of a breakout hit like The Boys can create a demand for more, there can be too much of a good thing. Unfortunately, Kripke, Supernatural creator and former showrunner, is no stranger to this concept. As Inverse pointed out, in a 2020 Twitter Q&A, Kripke said “My last show, Supernatural, I said five seasons for sure, and then that f***er went 15,” when speaking about his five-season plan for The Boys. While it’s unlikely this show will run for a full fifteen seasons, the introduction of several more installments threatens to derail The Boys’ presumed original plan. As one fan put it, “I hate this as it means there’s no storyline in mind that will make the show great from start to finish. The Boys will turn into Supernatural.”
It’s widely agreed that Supernatural ran for a decade too long, as by the end of the hit series’ run it was barely recognizable from the first few seasons, and there is a worry that this is what’s in store for The Boys. Both Supernatural and The Boys were and are huge moneymakers for their respective studios, so the instinct for many working behind the scenes would be to keep the series running as long as possible. Though Kripke was Supernatural’s showrunner only for the first five seasons, he stayed on as executive producer for the show’s fifteen-year run, and its fall from grace should be lesson enough for Kripke to have learned when a popular series needs to be wrapped up.
Wait and See What’s In Store for ‘The Boys’
Good shows don’t need to last forever and, fortunately, Kripke’s tease that there are potentially many more seasons in store for The Boys is just that: a tease. If audiences want more of The Boys, there are numerous spin-offs planned and in development, including Gen V (streaming on Prime Video) and an unnamed spin-off set in Mexico. The concern now is that the flagship series now has the potential to overrun its course before reaching a satisfying ending. Many have speculated on the intent behind Kripke’s words, and The Boys Season 5 renewal before Season 4 seems to only be fanning the flames.
In the end, viewers will have to wait and see what direction the wildly popular series goes in. While the show has so far been a non-stop rollercoaster, The Boys should focus on finding a satisfying ending that rings true to the show, and not continue for continuation and popularity’s sake.