The Boys Creator Is Ending The Series With Season 5 For A ‘Stupid’ Reason

Spoilers for season 4 of “The Boys” to follow.

After four seasons of depravity, gnarly violence, extreme gore, gratuitous nudity and more brutal and heartbreaking sealife deaths than any modern superhero movie or TV show, “The Boys” is coming to an end with season 5. It makes sense, of course. Season 4 was a mean, bleak season of TV mired in misery. From the political satire that got too real to Homelander getting away with everything he could possibly imagine, and even a literal coup that all but disbands the titular “lads,” there is only so much that “The Boys” can throw at its audience before it bears too strong a resemblance to the real world. Still, the show is doing a brilliant job of adapting its source material and making the story feel fresh and new while also following the comics.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, creator/showrunner Eric Kripke explained why he felt season 5 was the right time to end the story, saying that the reason has to do with a “wonky stupid screenwriter thing.” In his own words:

“Three and five are the big magical numbers for writing. Three is movie acts, TV acts are five. Jokes are a runner of three for five. Five just seems like a good round number. It’s enough to tell the story but also bring it to a climax without wearing out its welcome.”

There is, of course, another reason five seasons is important for the medium of television — syndication. Syndication was an old and important part of pre-streaming TV (which is coming back), which involved selling the rights to a title to other networks in order to air reruns. In order to sell a show for syndication, there needed to be enough episodes for the new network to air on reruns without repeating episodes or going on hiatus.

Traditionally, a show would be eligible for syndication once it reached 80 to 100 episodes — typically after four or five seasons depending on the episode order. Sure, “The Boys” doesn’t have the number of episodes a traditional network show would have, but it is about to reach the five season milestone nonetheless.

Before it’s all over, “The Boys” has some big loose ends to tie up as it adapts the end of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s original comic book, starting with the fact that season 4 wrapped up with Homelander and an army of supes in charge of the United States — which is already reason enough to not extend the story for much longer. Tellingly, Kripke has already warned fans to prepare for “lots of death” in the final season.

Beyond that, there’s the matter of how the hell the show will finally take Homelander down — especially since a pivotal twist from the comics is no longer on the table — and whether any of the other members of The Seven will get their comeuppance, starting with The Deep. Will he get to live his best life in the ocean? Or will Annie finally kill him like Erin Moriarty is hoping? And let’s not forget about the cliffhanger with Homelander and Soldier Boy at the very end of season 4, with Kripke teasing a father-son team-up against Butcher in the final season. 

Hopefully, “The Boys” will have enough time to resolve all of these before the end arrives, even if the franchise will likely live on through spin-off series like “Gen V” or the animated anthology “The Boys Presents: Diabolical.”

“The Boys” season 5 has yet to receive an official premiere date.