‘The Boys’ cast, creator on their ‘blessed’ collaboration and ending the show: ‘It’s really fun when it’s the end’

Calling all Supes! “The Boys” cast members Antony Starr (as Homelander), Laz Alonso (as Mother’s Milk) and Jessie T. Usher (as A-Train) joined creator and showrunner Eric Kripke on Thursday for a special screening and panel conversation for Screen Actors Guild members. The FYC event took place at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Screening Room in Los Angeles and the Q&A was moderated by Variety’s Angelique Jackson.

The fourth season of “The Boys” aired this summer on Prime Video and all episodes of the superhero show are currently streaming on the platform. The pulse-pounding finale of Season 4 screened for voters at the event — that’s the one in which Annie January / Starlight (Erin Moriarty) fights a version of herself while trying to protect the President, and Homelander ends up becoming a member of the new administration.

Kripke, who directed the finale, told the crowd, “Honestly, it’s so much fun to direct for many reasons, but probably the main reason are these guys and the rest of the cast. I’ve worked with some great casts, but I’ve never worked with a cast like this, where there are 12 people and they are all high precision instruments and lovely and like each other.”

Starr chimed in, “I feel blessed to be in a stable of actors where we’re able to have so much freedom on set and collaboration.” The New Zealander noted, “You don’t get a chemistry set like this very often where you’ve got someone at the head of the snake really setting the tone and then you’ve got a bunch of people that genuinely get on.”

The showrunner explained how he finds actors’ input “invaluable,” adding, “Take any good idea you can get from anywhere you can get it, and what I say to these guys all the time is, ‘It’s my job to know the chess board, it’s your job to know the piece.'”

Alonso addressed his character’s shift this year by admitting, “The whole irony of ‘The Boys’ is it that we’re always pointing our finger at the Supes and talking about how bad they are. But in order for us to expose them and bring justice, in many ways, we’ve become what we’ve criticized the most and there is a little hypocrisy there … that you have to become the evil that you detest.”

On playing a challenging scene, Usher divulged, “It happens in the moment, it’s not premeditated.”

“The Boys” was recently renewed for a fifth and final season, which is expected to premiere in 2026. With the end in sight, Starr said, “Five seasons is beautiful because we get to go back and know that we are leaving this project and we make the most of every moment that we have together as individuals and as creators because we have had that forewarning.”

Kripke revealed about Season 5, “The writers are hard at work, we’re having fun. It’s really fun when it’s the end — you know, it’s hard and it hasn’t hit me yet, the emotion of it, but just from a story point … you don’t have to keep storylines going into a season beyond that. It really let’s you blow the doors off it in a really exciting way.”

“The Boys” is a 2023 Emmy winner for Best Stunt Coordination, and a 2021 Emmy nominee for Best Drama Series. Starr received a 2023 Critics Choice nomination, and the superhero show has also contended at various guild awards. Even though “The Boys” may be ending the show with Season 5, there are still future seasons of spin-off series “Gen V” coming down the pike.

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