This interview contains major spoilers for The Boys‘ season five premiere. If you’re still avoiding them until you see the episode, you can instead head over to our non-spoiler review of the show’s stellar final season. If not, join us as we dive into the potential deaths on The Boys season five and how they might go down.
The Boys‘ began its final show with a bang. Or, rather, a “crack.” That’s roughly the sound we heard when Homelander snapped A-Train’s neck. The famous Supe’s demise was a shocking moment, an early goodbye to one of the show’s most important characters. But while Jessie T. Usher told us he loved his character’s ending, it also seemed to set the tone for what fans can expect from the series’ last year. If A-Train can die in the first episode, anyone can die at any point, right? That’s exactly what we can expect according to showrunner Eric Kripke. He told us more major deaths are coming in The Boys season five and they’ll be happening “throughout” the season.
During our interview with Kripke the day before The Boys‘ season five premiere, we asked about having to inform Usher about his character’s fate. We wanted to know if it helped the showrunner prepare for when he said goodbye to his entire cast and crew. It didn’t! Nor did it help when he had to do that with others, as his answer made clear A-Train won’t be the only big death that happens on the way to the series finale. There will be major deaths throughout season five of The Boys. Here’s what Kripke told us:
It’s a really hard phone call to say, “Your number’s up in the first episode.” And without spoiling too much, that was not the only time that season I had to make that call. And it was hard every single time, like, “Sorry, you’re not making it to the end of the season. You’re going to pack up and leave Toronto.” It’s like telling people they’re on Survivor. It was not fun because you create such a relationship and bond with these people. They genuinely become your family that it’s hard to tell them that their role is over.
It was inevitable that The Boys final season would feature some major deaths. But many/most major characters from the first episode made it this far. It wasn’t unreasonable to think most of them would also make it to the series finale…before dying. Instead, they’ll get voted off the proverbial island along the way to the final Supe council.
There the question will be whether anyone will survive this Survivor-like season.