How do you want the sci-fi hit to bow out?

By David Craig

Published: Tuesday, 09 July 2024 at 12:01 PM


The Boys star Laz Alonso has shared his hope that Prime Video‘s breakout sci-fi series will end with a movie, but admitted that showrunner Eric Kripke is yet to embrace the idea.

The superhero satire imagines a world in which a corporate-owned team of superpowered individuals are up to all kinds of nasty business behind the scenes, with a ragtag group of vigilantes tasked with keeping them in check.

Alonso plays Marvin – better known by the perplexing nickname ‘Mother’s Milk’ – who works closely with the likes of Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) to bring down Homelander (Antony Starr) and his cronies.

Following the recent announcement that The Boys would be ending with season 5, the cast appeared as guests on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to share their ambitions and fears about wrapping things up.

Alonso suggested: “Make the last episode of season 5 a cliffhanger and announce the film that we’ve been filming since the beginning of the series, pretty much.”

To prevent excitement levels getting too high, the actor added that his pitch to Kripke had so far been unsuccessful, joking that he “always somehow gets out of that one”.

In a statement following the news, the screenwriter and producer said that ending The Boys after five seasons was “always my plan”, neatly mirroring the timeline he initially set for his earlier hit series, Supernatural.

Addressing his denials that the show had a fixed endpoint, Kripke added: “I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax.”

Antony Starr (Homelander), Cameron Crovetti (Ryan) in The Boys season 4
Antony Starr (Homelander), Cameron Crovetti (Ryan) in The Boys season 4.
Prime Video

Also on Happy Sad Confused, co-star Antony Starr stressed the importance that The Boys goes out on a high note, as a disappointing final season can really tarnish the memory of a formerly successful series.

“I think there’s nothing worse — and I’ve been involved in a show that did this, it was f***ing horrible — you do that last season and it’s s**t,” he said. “And you get remembered very poorly and you have to kind of wear that.

“I like to think that we will go out on a really strong note and I think we all deserve that.”

Starr didn’t clarify which of his earlier television projects he was referring to, but New Zealand-based shows Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune, as well as US drama Banshee, are among his past multi-season projects.

While The Boys is ending with season 5, the franchise could conceivably continue further, with one successful spin-off – Gen V – already well-established.

The Boys is available to stream on Prime Video. New episodes weekly. Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Prime Video and pay £8.99 a month after that.

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