The Boys to disappear after season 5

Here’s some news that will make OG Supernatural fans very happy: at long last, Eric Kripke finally has his five-season show. For those who successfully avoided the SuperWhoLock era on Tumblr, Kripke—who would go on to spearhead Prime Video smash hit The Boys—originally planned to cap his early-aughts series after its season 5 finale. The CW, however, decided to renew the series with a new showrunner for what ended up being 10 more seasons due to its exceptionally high ratings. While the auteur did stay on as an executive producer, it was never the same, and general consensus holds that things would have been better for everyone involved if Kripke could have just exercised his original five-year plan.

Now, we finally get to see what it looks like when he does. “[The Boys] Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season!” Kriple posted today on Twitter/X. “Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought.”

“Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax,” he continued, in true, disgusting, very The Boys fashion. “Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun!” The post also includes the redacted final page from the series’ upcoming fourth season, including a genuinely thrilling postscript: “See you for our final season, motherfuckers!”

When The Boys’ season five renewal was announced last month, there was some healthy skepticism about the ability of the show’s premise to endure indefinitely, including from us. “Butcher and Homelander can’t keep stalemating forever. At some point, someone has to win. Butcher is clever and tough-as-nails, but Homelander is an atomic bomb in the shape of a human. Eventually, it won’t be believable for him to lose,” this author wrote in response to the announcement. Now, we don’t have to worry about that possibility anymore. Homelander could very much still win, which would be devastating for our beloved Boys and the fate of humanity of course, but thrilling as a conclusion for the series. In the end, all that’s really important is that someone wins.

The real victors, though, are The Boys’ fans. In an era where shows are increasingly getting the axe if they don’t perform at a franchise level in their very first outing, a series that lives a full and beautiful life and dies of natural causes at its creator-intended time is a genuine miracle. We’re lucky to be around to see it, even if half of the show’s characters may not by the end of this sure-to-be incredibly violent and incredibly bloody season.

The Boys season 4 premieres on Prime Video June 13.