Since it began in 2019, Prime Video’s The Boys has become one of the biggest TV hits of the modern streaming era. The show’s gory, irreverent take on the superhero story has offered a unique perspective on the inescapable genre, which has now kept audiences coming back across four seasons. The Boys is based on the comic book series of the same name by writer Garth Ennis and illustrator Darick Robertson, but equally important to the show’s success is showrunner Eric Kripke.
Eric Kripke first broke into the industry with a pair of acclaimed short films, before contributing to The WB’s Tarzan and penning the stealth horror hit Boogeyman. Kripke’s true breakout moment came as the creator of Supernatural, starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, on the CW in 2005. After running the first five seasons of Supernatural, he then stepped back into an executive producer role and began developing a number of new series, including Revolution, starring future The Boys antagonist Giancarlo Esposito.
The Boys Season 4 finds the world in a very different place than when fans left off. It’s been 6 months since Homelander (Antony Starr) introduced his son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) to the world, and publicly killed a man who had a problem with it. While he awaits a verdict in his murder trial, high-powered supes plan their takeover of the US government through Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit). After the events of the third season, A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) is experiencing a crisis of conscience that finds him questioning his role in this conflict.
On the other side of the aisle, The Boys, now led by Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), continue to search for an upper hand against Homelander while Starlight (Erin Moriarty) has to fight a more public battle as she becomes a target for the far right and Vought’s supe spokespeople, including Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) of The Seven. As Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) struggle to deal with the weight of their pasts, Hughie Campbell’s (Jack Quaid) own personal demons come hurtling towards him. To top it all off, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), shaken by his Temp V-related brain tumor prognosis, finds himself on a different path from the team as he is reunited with mysterious CIA contact Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
Along with a talented writer’s room, showrunner Eric Kripke has steered The Boys for four seasons and turned it into one of Amazon’s flagship streaming series. 2023 saw the release of Gen V Season 1, the first live-action spin-off show from the world of The Boys. The announcement of The Boys Season 5 being the show’s last may lead some to believe that Amazon is preparing to wind down its franchise. However, with Gen V Season 2 and another potential major spin-off series, titled The Boys: Mexico, confirmed to be in the works, Prime Video subscribers have plenty more to look forward to. To catch people up to speed, we sat down with showrunner Eric Kripke to dive into the challenges surrounding The Boys Season 4, more specifically, how he tries to keep fans of the streaming show surprised and invested after so many years.
Exclusive Interview with Showrunner Eric Kripke for The Boys Season 4 on Prime Video
This show has always pulled from the real world. But in The Boys Season 4, the public’s treatment of Starlight is especially reminiscent of some celebrity cases in the past few years. Was that always part of the plan, or was it something that revealed itself as the season was developing?
Eric Kripke: We take each season of The Boys as it comes, based on where we left off. Starlight not being Starlight anymore after living her whole life as that person and dealing with the identity of who she is became important. We really put her through the wringer, through some things that are pretty topical. We write about what pisses us off or what scares us in the writer’s room. You know, there are a couple of things happening in politics and in the Supreme Court that we found pretty upsetting. So, we wanted to infuse Annie’s character with it and give us a chance to explore it.
Generally, how much would you say the story of each season of The Boys changes from conception to actually shooting on set?
Eric Kripke: The whole thing is pretty organic. Any showrunner who tells you something like, “We have this multi-year plan and it’s intricate,” is lying! I know enough showrunners, and that’s not what they do. Our process is more along the lines of, we will spend four full weeks at the beginning of the season, sometimes more actually, of just big picture stuff, asking questions like, what do we want the season storyline to be? What are the themes we’re interested in? What is the satire we want to explore? We get a first draft of a map this way. You know, I don’t do it alone on a mountain, there’s a team of brilliant writers who all put this thing together.
When we start breaking down episodes, we start to realize, “Oh, that storyline isn’t going to work,” or “That one’s not as fun as we thought.” And so we go back. It’s like you’re building an airplane mid-flight — you’re taking out the part that’s boring and putting in a better part. You keep working on it over and over. Same thing when the actors come in. I always say, “It’s my job to know the chessboard, but it’s your job to know your piece,” so we’re both going to catch things the other person is going to miss. The actors are good at asking questions like, “Why would I do this particular moment?” and “Why is that important?” So, then it changes during shooting, and then it changes another time in editing. If I wasn’t forced to deliver the episodes, I would be changing it still now (laughs).
This season, you’ve got Jeffrey Dean Morgan and some other big names. How do you go about presenting something to these actors? Do you write for specific people, or do you bring them in and say, here’s what you’ve got?
Eric Kripke: It’s different every time. In Jeffrey Dean’s case, we know each other well from Supernatural, obviously. We had been talking for a while about trying to get him into The Boys and his schedule was opening up. At that point, you go into the writer’s room and say, “We have Jeffrey Dean if we can find the right role for him.” Then, we kick around what’s best for the story. The story always comes first.
Someone cooked up that character and we needed, basically, an actor who was as ruthless and charismatic as Billy Butcher. The minute that came up, I said, “We should do this character because that would be perfect for Jeffrey Dean.” With some of the other cameos, we’ll write in the script something like “huge Hollywood star” and then I’ll talk to Seth Rogen and ask, “You have any buddies you want to call?” I have a much smaller Rolodex than Seth does, but I have a few names I can call, too (laughs). Then, we see who’s available and who can play that part.
When you’re writing characters like Billy Butcher and Homelander, it’s a given that they’re going to get bigger and more intense as the story progresses. How do you do that while keeping them grounded and functional in the story?
Eric Kripke: You try to dig into their psychology. That gets harder every season because you’ve dug all these basements and sub-basements into their psyche, and then you’ve got to dig even deeper and see what really makes them tick. If you can do that, and if characters and their psychology are your first priority, it helps you keep them from getting cartoonish. Because at the end of the day, they might be behaving deviantly, but they’re behaving the way human beings would and that keeps the show from spinning to be too big or too broad. Even when they’re doing huge things, like world-changing events, they still have to be concerned with their own psychology and why they’re doing it. And I think that keeps it grounded.
Now that The Boys is four seasons in, and its signature drama, comedy, and even violence have been established for audiences, do you feel any pressure to give them what they’re coming for?
Eric Kripke: I feel incredible pressure about giving audiences something new [in each season of The Boys]. Whenever any showrunner knows what their show is, it’s time to stop making that show. They have to be a surprising and evolving thing. That’s always scary because every season, you’re hanging on by your fingernails, wondering if it’s going to work, and you barely manage to pull it off. Then, you reward yourself by throwing all of that out the window and trying something totally new again next season.
It’s always a high-wire act, but I think that’s what you need. Shows become boring and stagnant when they start following the same pattern over and over again. You have to keep reaching for the new! Even as writers and actors, if we’re not doing that, then what are we doing? We’re just chasing a paycheck at that point. So, you really have to keep pushing into surprising places.
When it comes to building a series of this scale, when should it be finally time to bring it to an end? Is it about beating the bad guy? Is it about the state of the world? Or, is it feeling like the characters have changed in the way that the beginning sets up?
Eric Kripke: Yeah, without necessarily knowing when the show should end. I was so wrong with Supernatural, I could not have been more wrong in history about how long a show should go. Moreover, I should have stopped trying to predict how long [The Boys] should go. But I will say that the big meta storyline of the series is these two forces of Homelander and Billy Butcher coming toward each other. Like these two meteors, two planets. Whatever the ending is, it has to heavily involve finally bringing that to a head with whatever disruption that entails. There are obviously other shows in this universe. There are obviously other corners of the universe to explore. However, this particular story is about Homelander and Butcher crashing into each other.
The Boys Season 4 is now streaming on Prime Video!
Developed by Eric Kripke.
Showrunner: Eric Kripke.
Based on The Boys by Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson.
Executive Producers: Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Phil Sgriccia, Michaela Starr, Paul Grellong, David Reed, Meredith Glynn, Judalina Neira, Ken F. Levin, & Jason Netter.
Main Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Chace Crawford, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, Cameron Crovetti, Laila Robins, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Simon Pegg, Rosemarie Dewitt, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Elliot Knight, Rob Benedict, Rob Benedict, Reid Miller, Dan Mousseau, Maddie Phillips, Asa Germann.
Composers: Christopher Lennertz & Matt Bowen.
Production Companies: Kripke Enterprises, Point Grey Pictures, Original Film, Kickstart Entertainment, KFL Nightsky Productions, Amazon MGM Studios, & Sony Pictures Television.
Episode Count: 8 (Season 4).
