Season 4 of The Boys was okay. People who just realized they were being teased hated it, but other than that it was a decent series of episodes. That being said, the show has clearly become too dependent on these characters and universe, with one spinoff already launched (with a second season in the works) and another set to go into production. However, some of the cast wanted to take it a step further and make a movie to end the main series.
The news came during a face-to-face conversation with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, with Laz Alonso (Breastmilk) and Antony Starr (Homelander) expressing their interest in ending the five-season series on the big screen.
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“I had been proposing to Eric that we should end the show with a feature film, but it didn’t work out. [Kripke]… Like, make the final episode of season five a cliffhanger and then announce the movie we’ve been shooting since the beginning of the show, you know. But he always somehow gets away from that and doesn’t do it,” Alonso explained. Starr immediately asked his partner if this would be a full theatrical release and got an affirmative answer. “Okay, I agree,” the Homeland actor concluded.
Of course, there’s a good chance that this approach will lead nowhere, as actors keep putting out stuff that gets rejected or ultimately scrapped, but as Amazon slowly moves into theatrical distribution and seeks to expand its catalog of attractive IP (The Boys slowly but steadily became the butt of its own joke), you can’t help but shudder at the prospect of the TV adaptation of Garth Ennis’ comic book series changing plans once again (the season five finale was the result of much back-and-forth between the creative staff) and exceeding expectations.
In an age of wannabe high-end TV, over-budget shows that rarely reach 10 episodes per season, TV shows have to convince viewers that they need to last more than four or five seasons. The Boys slowed down its third season because the feud between Homelander and The Butcher was just too interesting to rehash, and it seemed like anyone with a critical mind was hoping that the (much leaner) fourth season would wrap up nicely and set the stage for a great fifth season finale.
I’m afraid The Boys has lost its fight to be the kind of profit-driven superhero franchise it likes to mock, but we really don’t need to save the final act for the big screen. Hell, even Lucasfilm was smart enough to wrap up The Mandalorian’s three-season arc before announcing that Star Wars will return to theaters in 2026 as a theatrical sequel.
