Well hello there lads, it’s that bloody time again, The Boys season 4 is here! We spoke to the show’s creator Eric Kripke about his thought process behind season 4, and the first 3 episodes, read on to see what he had to say.
Once again with Vought, Homelander (Antony Starr), and head popper Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) breathing down their necks, The Boys must fight not just supes but politics, corruption, and at this point a completely unhinged Homelander. In the season, Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the control of Homelander. Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son Ryan as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team is fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late. Again. This season introduces 3 new characters, Joe Kessler, a former colleague and friend of Butcher’s played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead, Supernatural), Valorie Curry (Blair Witch) as Firecracker and Susan Heyward (Orange is the New Black) as Sister Sage the new members of The Seven.
Season 4 takes a turn from the show’s more light hearted and fun attitude from the first 3 seasons, taking on a more serious tone. That’s not to say that we do not get to uhh enjoy? Some blood, gore, violence and simply traumatizing moments throughout the season that only Eric Kripke could pull off. In the first 3 episodes alone you feel a sense of deja vu, as once again Butcher and the gang are on a mission to neutralise Victoria and they’re working with the CIA. As with season 2, we see new members join the Seven (This time we would not feel bad if Homelander lazered their faces in), but if you think you have this season figured out, think again. If one thing is for sure, it’s that Eric Kripke has a way of surprising his audience when you least expect it.
Courtesy of Prime Video
Season 4 is upping the heartache, the emotion and the intensity. Wth both Butcher and Homelander facing their mortality, the stakes have never been higher. “The main protagonist and the main antagonist have very similar themes. In Homelander’s case mortality is a loud siren of humanity, and humanity disgusts him.” says Kripke.
This season will also dive deeper into each characters background, as last season saw a lot of character development from The Boys, and even from The Seven, this season will see a lot more internal struggle from each character. “I think every season we’re trying to dig a little deeper into who they are and to reveal new facets of them that we didn’t know before, and you start digging deep enough and you start hitting their core traumas.” Kripke explained “So we started talking about how we wanted a lot of them to really face the thing in their past that in many ways, defined them and who they were and could they let go of it?” Says Kripke. The first three episodes alone see Butcher, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Annie January (Erin Moriarty), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) struggling to fight their own personal battles while also trying to save the world. We see a massive shift in the character of A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) in episode 3 that will play a major part of this season.
After Butcher, lets face it, f***** up and lost Ryan, sending him straight into Homelander’s arms, the question on everyone’s mind is, will Ryan turn bad? When we asked Kripke what would happen to Ryan this season he replied “He definitely has the potential to be corrupted, and it’s difficult to avoid all of that money and power” He went on to say “Time will tell whether he really falls to the darkside or not.”
When we asked Kripke what he drew inspiration from for this particularly hardcore season, he explained his process of how he draws inspiration from real world events and then as he says “Supefys” it. “We talk about what’s going on in the world that terrifies us” Kripke went on to say “And that’s this bloody stew of January 6th and QAnon and Trump and Social Media Disinformation, on and on and on and then we saturate it.” Or as the writers like to say, Supefy.
Watch our full interview with Eric Kripke for Silence on Set here:
The Boys have one hell of a season in store for us, with an epic season finale. So make sure you stay tuned, The first 3 episodes of The Boys are now streaming on Prime Video and new episodes will be releasing every week until July 18th.
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
