“It’s like Kramer vs. Kramer meets Avengers: Endgame…”
We’re less than a week out since the finale of The Boys Season 3, and we’re already itchy for the comeback.
As we said in our spoiler-filled review of the now-concluded season, it might well be the best run of any show this year, managing to tie a lot of plot points up in a bow, while also tantalisingly setting up some big tease’y plot threads for what is to come.
So before we know what we might be getting, we need to know when we might be getting it.
Karl Urban – aka Billy Butcher – told Collider the following:
“Yeah, we’re starting I think August the 22nd, we’re going to be starting season four. So I’m getting back, getting my Butcher back on, and I can’t wait. It’s a fun gang to play with, we work hard and play hard, and I can’t wait to see where they take the characters from where we leave them at the end of this season.”
All three previous seasons began filming between 14 and 15 months before the first episode from that season debut on Amazon Prime Video, so using that same math, we can probably expect to see the beginning of Season 4 in October or November in 2023.
But what will it all be about?
The Boys show-runner Eric Kripke told Entertainment Weekly that Ryan – the son of Homelander but also the sorta-son of Bill – will be at the centre of the next season’s drama:
“So much of finales are like pilots for the next season, and we really wanted to set up this battle for Ryan’s soul. I don’t think the game’s over yet. I think [Ryan] saw this one thing and I think we should all be afraid because if he becomes another Homelander, that’s obviously really bad for the planet. But he’s still Becca’s kid and there’s still a shot that Butcher can pull him into the light.
“I think one of the concerns of season 4 will really be this tug of war over Ryan, as both men really try to get a grip on him. So I think, if anything, we’re just hinting at the danger of what would happen if Butcher loses that fight.”
On that same topic, he told Variety:
“If Butcher can figure out how to get his shit together and get the kid back, that could be the single best weapon they have against Homelander. But vice-versa, if Homelander wins the kid over, that’s apocalyptic because then there’s two Homelanders. It’s like a child drama with apocalyptic stakes. It’s like Kramer vs. Kramer meets Avengers: Endgame. So that will be a really rich story moving forward.”
Beyond the future of Ryan, Kripke told IGN that Vought will also be at the core of the upcoming season.
“[Vought] has a lot of rebuilding to do physically and literally with the tower itself, but also with bringing in new members of The Seven. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that Homelander was like a big kid smashing a toy once they let him be in control, or once he got to be in control of Vought, but he’s a really smart character, and I think he’s really smart about learning from his mistakes and figuring out how to redirection Vought into a way that will be advantageous to him. Focusing more on the kind of guys who wear giant buffalo hats, for instance. So he’s got a lot more tricks up his sleeve.”
And, finally, the real-world political divide will continue to spill into the show, with Kripke telling Gamespot the following:
“I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that we’re definitely working towards a Dakota Bob presidency with Neuman as a secret Vought plant in the vice presidency, and all the complications that ensue from that. That obviously was probably Garth’s [Ennis] biggest endgame story. Again, it’s not a spoiler to say that. You’ve seen us manoeuvre the chess pieces into that place so we can start telling that story.
“I think we leave both Homelander and Starlight in really interesting places where Starlight leaves The Seven and basically becomes one of The Boys. But even more than that, there’s a young left wing liberal group that are following her that will have both benefits and then also complications, whereas Homelander is finding that with his group called the Home teamers, there’s like this very kind of right wing MAGA group.
“I think we’re starting to see – which you’ll see a lot more of in Season 4 – you’re starting to see this notion of society itself fracturing into these two factions. I don’t think either side is totally innocent. I think they’re not listening to each other, and they’re just calcifying and getting more and more irate with the other and that just can’t be good. It’s sort of a sneak peek of one of the one of the big themes for Season 4.”
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