Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Boys” Season 5, Episode 1.
“The Boys” creator and showrunner Eric Kripke said Amazon is thirsty for more projects set in the superhuman universe, noting he’s completely down for the job as long as it makes sense.
But for now, Kripke told TheWrap there’s “no hard and fast plans.”
“I know that there’s a desire from Amazon,” Kripke said. “I think we’re into it as long as it’s a show that has a reason for existing, and that we’re confident we can clear a bar of quality — because the one thing I’ll say: Whether people like or don’t like our spinoffs, I think you at least have to agree that they’re all quality pieces of entertainment. Like, ‘Maybe not for me,’ but they’re good.
Since “The Boys” premiered in 2019, there have been several spinoffs, including the college-based series “Gen V,” which overlaps with “The Boys,” and its upcoming prequel show “Vought Rising.”
“As long as we can maintain that, I’m totally open to it,” Kripke said. “It’s a fun universe, and if there’s other corners that can be illuminated, that feel like it’s its own [and] it can stand alone as a show without ever having seen ‘The Boys.’ Then for sure, we’re open to it.”
The fifth and final season premiered with two episodes on Wednesday, and came packin’ with a surprise death and some fun cameo and guest star moments, one of which was MS NOW’s Chris Hayes, host of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
He shows up in the first episode during a White House press brief. In the scene, the journalist and political commentator’s questions are shut down new Vice President and mindreader Ashley Barrett (Colbie Minifie). Kripke said Hayes’ appearance in the show stems from Hayes’ longtime friendship with writer, producer and “Vought Rising” showrunner Paul Grellong.
“That’s a really smart, good one. So Paul Grellong, who wrote the episode, is college buddies with Chris Hayes, and they’ve been friends forever. And Chris even showed up in an episode of ‘Revolution,’ the show I made for Bad Robot that Paul was a writer on, and he showed up in that episode too. So it was just more like, let’s put someone real in the press scrum and and Paul was like, ‘Let me call Chris. I’m like, ‘Yes, get Chris.’ And he very kindly agreed to.”
Another guest star this season is Ely Henry, who comes into play TV writing supe The Worm, who Butcher has forcibly enlisted to help The Boys break into Vought’s “Freedom Camps” and rescue Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) and Frenchie (Tomer Capone).
While on their way to the camp, The Worm starts venting to Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) about how difficult it is end a show.
“When I wrote the series finale of ‘Triple C’ — that’s Crimson, Countess Capers —it was impossible to like tick every box and tie up every little storyline,” The Worm explains in the scene. “I mean, just try making everybody happy — you can’t do it. Finales are the worst … It is thankless and impossible work.”
With the pressures of closing out the beloved series with a bang — though “The Boys” Season 5 has already been celebrated with rave reviews and a Rotten Tomatoes “Tomatometer” score of 97%, Kripke said he used the character as a diary entry for his series finale worries.
“Anytime you’re watching a movie or a TV show and there’s a writer, pay attention to what that character is saying, because that character is saying what the writer of that particular piece is saying,” Kripke said.
“We’re really nervous; I don’t know if we landed the plane. It’s really hard and so many shows are retroactively judged by their finale, so it’s really scary, and I’m appropriately terrified. I needed an outlet for my neuroses, and that was Worm, and that’s why we came up with the character. I also think there’s certain value in that little meadow wink to the audience of like, ‘Look, we get it. This is going to be really hard. Like, just letting them know. Honestly, maybe they’ll judge us a little less harshly if we speak out that we’re really nervous about it too. Worm was a little bit of my therapy doll, I guess.”
