The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke and cast members Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Chace Crawford and others took to the stage for a wide-ranging panel discussion focused on the fifth and final season of Prime Video’s superhero series.
The series, which first aired in 2019, ended with Season 5 in May of this year, ending its seven-year run on TV with a death and an action-packed finale. Regarding the choice to end The Boys this way, Kripke, who also serves as the show’s executive producer, explained that he wanted the finale to be emotional.
“A big part of a series finale is saying goodbye to your friends. It’s such an interesting experience to bring them home for so many years. So when they go away and you’ll never see them again, you want to feel that emotion and melancholy. At least that’s what I do when I watch the finale,” Kripke said. “We were very intentionally trying to tell this story. We wanted to keep things messy… Nothing will ever be perfect, but through incredible sacrifice and resilience and taking care of each other, we can find happiness.”
But it was still important to Kripke to have Homelander (Antony Starr) die like he did, and live on television without any powers. “We just wanted to show that when you take power away from someone like that, they quickly become pathetic and start snorting,” he said.
Jack Quaid, who plays Huey Campbell, talked about his character’s arc in the final season. “I think what Eric and the writers handled so beautifully in playing the good guy character is that he’s a good guy. But if that’s never tested, who cares?” he said. “I think what’s truly heroic about Huey is that he learns (from his mistakes), adjusts, and does his best. And I think this is something you often say, Eric, that true heroism isn’t this big, grand act…I think Huey really embodies that.”
In addition to Homelander’s death in the finale, Jesse T. Usher’s A-Train also died in the season premiere. Usher reflected on learning what was in store for his character. “Eric called me long before he got the pages and told me about what was going to happen on the A train, how it was going to happen, and the ribbon that was going to tie the story of the A train together,” Asher said. “I said to him, ‘This is a hell of a modern-day Shakespeare.'”
Speaking about The Deep’s death, Chace Crawford similarly reflected on how he felt the series “ended perfectly.” “The fact that Eric let me get to the finale was great. I mean, honestly, I thought I was going to die every season,” he joked.
And while the finale may have featured more than a few violent deaths, not all stories end tragically. Moriarty’s Annie has a happy ending. “I love when things come together in a positive way for the characters, but it doesn’t feel trite,” she said. “It feels understandably hopeful in a world that has been so cynical.”
Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Jensen Ackles, Nathan Mitchell, Susan Hayward, Valorie Curry and Daveed Diggs also spoke on the panel, moderated by Joanna Robinson.
