The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke on Why [Spoiler] Had to Die

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Hello Internet! Thanks for watching this video! Please support us ❤️  The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke on Why [Spoiler] Had to Die  If there’s one thing The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has tried to get across about the show’s fifth and final season, it’s that no one is safe. The end is nigh, and there’s no telling who might perish on the road to the final confrontation between our heroes and the almighty Homelander. That fact is borne out in the Season 5 premiere, which culminates in the death of a major character who’s been at the forefront of the series from the very first episode. Let’s pour one out for Jessie T. Usher’s A-Train... and then watch the full video as Kripke and the cast reflect on the first major death of Season 5 of the Prime Video series.

Transcript

00:02Head's rolling early on and final seasons is good for business, so, yeah.

00:09There's one thing the boys showrunner Eric Kripke has tried to get across about the show's

00:13fifth and final season, it's that no one is safe. The end is nigh and there's no telling

00:19who might perish on the road to the final confrontation between our heroes and the

00:22almighty Homelander. That fact is borne out in the season 5 premiere, which culminates

00:27in the death of a major character who's been at the forefront of the series from the very first

00:32episode. Let's pour one out for Jesse T. Usher's A-Train.

00:37A-Train, where are you going? Almost ready to shoot.

00:40This is important.

00:42He goes out a hero and it's a really great bookend to show how much he's grown as a character

00:50and how much more human and humane he's become.

00:55It's certainly a dark way to kick off season 5, but also a necessary one. This satirical

01:01superhero universe has grown darker than ever now that Homelander has taken control of the

01:05country, mirroring the ways our own world has changed politically in the uncertain landscape

01:10of 2026. We recently spoke with Kripke and the cast of The Boys to break down A-Train's

01:15death and explore why the series has only grown more timely and relevant in its final season.

01:20Is hope the ultimate superpower in the boys' universe? Let's talk about it.

01:27Season 5 opens with several of our heroes imprisoned inside one of Vought's new freedom

01:31camps. Prison camps where the company tosses anyone they view as dangerous or disruptive

01:36to Homelander's new regime. The plot in Episode 1 revolves around Starlight and Billy Butcher

01:41organizing a jailbreak to bust out Huey, Frenchy, and Mother's Milk before Homelander can execute

01:46them for their, quote, crimes. The good news is that Starlight and Friends have a powerful ally

01:52in the super speedster A-Train, who finally made a break from the Seven in Season 4. Unfortunately,

01:58A-Train proves to be the first hero to fall in Season 5. Ironically, he dies doing exactly what

02:04he wouldn't back in the series premiere. He avoids running through an innocent bystander,

02:09losing his footing, and allowing the vindictive Homelander to catch up to him. At that moment,

02:13A-Train's fate is sealed. We had decided a while ago that A-Train should probably be the first to

02:19go. You know, it felt like Homelander's anger towards him would be so red hot that it was sort

02:27of difficult to figure out a way to write around. Unsurprisingly, the parallel between A-Train's

02:34crime in the series premiere and his self-sacrifice in the Season 5 premiere was very intentional.

02:39It was a way to show how far his character has come and remind us that some superheroes in this

02:45universe are actually capable of living up to the title.

02:48I think it was really important to us that A-Train go out a hero. And there's this sort of

02:53lovely

02:53moment that Paul Grelong wrote. Whereas, you know, in the very first time you saw A-Train in the pilot,

03:00he carelessly runs through a woman. And the very last time you see A-Train in the series,

03:08he very carefully dodges a woman. But that causes him to trip and cost him his life. But he goes

03:15out

03:16a hero. And it's a really great bookend to show how much he's grown as a character and how much

03:25more

03:25human and humane he's become. It's not only a big moment for A-Train himself, but for Homelander

03:32too. Here, we see Homelander confronted with the former ally who's now one of the few people on

03:37Earth completely unafraid to stand up to him and speak truth to power. What was going through

03:42Homelander's mind at that moment? For that, we turn to actor Antony Starr.

03:46I looked at it like, you know, it's a necessary thing. But I think in the moment,

03:54it was really just, it had to be done. You know, it was another person that betrayed him and

03:59the ledger had to be balanced no matter what. I think he thinks he's doing the right thing

04:04according to what he needs to survive in advance in his life. So I think, you know, as far as

04:10he was

04:11concerned, like A-Train fully deserved it. But was Starr himself surprised by this twist?

04:15Yeah, yeah, a little bit. But at the same time, no, because, you know, the show has a history of

04:21not pulling its punches. And, you know, it just felt like the next, of course, something like that

04:28was going to happen. It didn't surprise me as much as it was a, it was just a surprise that

04:34it was

04:34more the who than the what of the situation. So, so yeah, unfortunately, heads rolling early on

04:43and final seasons is good for business. So yeah, as Sister Sage actress Susan Hayward notes,

04:51A-Train's death is all about the idea of sacrifice and redemption. Is anyone in this

04:56sordid superhero universe actually capable of redemption? Apparently so.

05:01It was also a great moment to think about what the theme of redemption, what redemption could look

05:07like, and what being a hero might look like, you know, the world can kind of be cynical, sometimes,

05:13I think it's safe to say. And it was a, I think the first episode is going to give the

05:18audience a

05:18really beautiful moment to meditate on what being a hero actually is. It's not always a costume and

05:24cameras and comfort and fame. Sometimes it looks very, very different.

05:32The Boys has always made a name for itself parodying our fraught political climate. The series originally

05:37debuted at the tail end of the first Trump administration and Homelander himself is clearly

05:41modeled after Donald Trump in some ways. Now in the years since season four first aired, Trump has been

05:47reelected and there's new conflict at home and abroad. The series wastes no time in season five before

05:53digging into this new era and parodying the current state of the US. That's despite the fact that much

05:59of season five was broken down and written before the 2024 election.

06:03I mean, look, it's really hard to make satire when the world is crazier than your superhero exploding

06:08penis show. We broke and wrote most of season five before this year's this past year's election. So we

06:20actually thought we were writing speculative fiction about what authoritarian creep would really look

06:30like under Homelander's reign. But then there was an election and a lot of the things we wrote about

06:35have sort of horrifically come to pass. Stuff that we thought was like really out there. It was hard to

06:41think of anything crazier than a series of internment camps across the country. And yet, now here we are.

06:50For Kripke, the key to dealing with this difficult subject matter is something the show has always relied on heavily.

06:55Only through the power of humor can the boys take bleak topics like internment camps and the rise of

07:01authoritarianism and make us able to look at them straight in the eye.

07:04It's hard. It's really hard. But I think, you know, one thing that I think the show does is it,

07:12it spits in

07:13the eye of all of that and, and holds it up to ridicule. And I think laughter is a really

07:20powerful tool.

07:22I think, I think it makes something that feels so scary and big, like a little bit more manageable,

07:28if you can just laugh at it. And that's what we're trying to do.

07:32Season five's real world parallels are pretty impressive, considering that, again, these episodes were largely

07:38written before the election and everything that's happened since. But as Hayward points out, history is nothing

07:44if not cyclical. All of this has happened before and will likely happen again.

07:49I would say the stories follow things that have happened before. The ambition, the pursuit of ambition

07:58ambition is a story as old as time. You know, it has a certain set of rules that have beats

08:04that it's

08:05going to hit as a story. So depending on whatever country you're in, whatever time you're in, whatever

08:10empire you happen to find yourself in, there's a certain rhythm that that story takes. And I think

08:16what's great about the show is it uses satire uses fantasy to place the audience in a world where they

08:21can

08:22be grossed out, they can laugh, they can be shocked, and then they can step out of it and look

08:27at the

08:27moment that they find themselves in and place themselves there. Firecracker actress Valerie

08:31Curry reveals that the series has actually been therapeutic, giving her a way to channel her

08:36own fears and frustrations and work through them in a larger-than-life setting.

08:40And in terms of the reflection of current events and the fact that, you know, it has always existed

08:46as a satire of our culture and of our politics, corporate capitalism, celebrity, media. One of the

08:55things that is truly wild is how far in advance the scripts are being written and that like they're

09:00just maybe they're reading the room really well and maybe they're freakishly prescient, but things are

09:06sometimes uncannily reflective of what's going on. But I know as an actor, I've been very grateful to

09:12have a place to process feelings of frustration, feelings, feelings of fear, feelings of frustration,

09:19feelings of anger, you know, um, and oh, I will miss having that place to do it.

09:24Yes, the series is ending soon, but as Hayward reminds us, the Boys universe will continue on

09:29through various spinoffs like Jin-V and the upcoming Vaught Rising.

09:33Vaught Rising is going to kind of take the baton and Jin-V are going to continue to carry the

09:39baton of,

09:40you know, what else is going to be satirized and what else will we need to process in the coming

09:45days. So this cast might be gone, but the world will still be there.

09:49Speaking of Jin-V, what of Jaz Sinclair's Marie Moreau and her young friends? How do these soups

09:54impact the plot of season five now that they've thrown their lot in with Starlight? Kripke says not

10:00to expect too much from Marie and the gang as the focus is going to stay on the show's main

10:04cast

10:04in season five. I'd say episode one is a good example of what we like to do, which is, you

10:11know,

10:11make, you know, make some references, some Easter eggs, but, um, but by no means is it required viewing.

10:19I mean, I want you to watch it. Please watch it. Some of the Gen-V kids do show up

10:23later in the season.

10:25You saw it in the trailers, but anyone thinking that like Marie Moreau is, you know, going to be

10:31the hero who takes down Homelander. I think you're going to be disappointed. Um, you know,

10:37this isn't her show. She has a show. This is a show about the boys and the boys have to

10:43take center

10:44stage in a way that you can enjoy without feeling like, you know, you have to have homework to do

10:51or

10:51require viewing to do. As dark and cynical as the boys often is about our current socio-political

11:00climate, there's also an inherent optimism fueling the series. We see that in episode one as we learn

11:06that Jack Quaid's Huey is able to maintain hope despite everything that's befallen our heroes

11:11since the end of season four. I love the scene I got to have in the first episode, um, with,

11:16when I'm, when I'm talking with the other prisoner about this, this idea of hope and how hard that

11:22is to hold on to. And sometimes that's all you have. And it, you know, I, I really didn't want

11:27any of that to come across as Huey being naive or overly optimistic. Cause I think Huey has weirdly

11:34like been through so much and for him to wind up on the other side with, with hope, I think

11:39is really

11:40beautiful. Uh, he's a character that's been knocked down so many times, but he keeps getting back up.

11:45He also, I don't know at this point, like what, what can Homelander do to him, uh, that hasn't

11:51already happened. Um, but I love this idea of hope being an act of resistance and hope being brave and

11:58hope being kind of badass. And I think that Huey really embodies that this season. And I think it's

12:04been wonderful to play a character for so long cause you get to see him grow. And I feel like

12:08this season

12:08he's more grown up than he ever has been. Kripke makes it clear that the struggle to maintain

12:13hope in a hopeless time is one of the dominant themes of season five.

12:17I think it's something that a lot of people can relate to. And it's certainly something that,

12:24you know, the writers and I were feeling, uh, in the real world. Like how do you hold on to

12:30hope

12:30when things can be so dark without becoming cynical, without burying your head in the sand,

12:36because it's heroic. Just the simple act of holding on to hope, you know, the, the simple act of

12:42getting up every time you're knocked down, win or lose, like that's heroic. And, and, and, and that

12:49makes the world a better place. Um, and so that becomes a big concern of the season. Are you able

12:56to hold on to hope? Um, if you lose hope, can you get it back? How do you keep getting

13:03back up again?

13:03We also see in episode one, how this sense of hope gives Huey a newfound strength. In one pivotal

13:09scene, Huey proves brave enough to stand up to Homelander despite having no powers and no way of

13:14defending himself. It's a stunning sign of just how much the character has grown and evolved over the

13:20course of five seasons. I mean, oh God, like Huey is, he started at having his girlfriend evaporate

13:27literally in his hands. You know, he's been through the ringer and then some. So I think,

13:32you know what he sees through Homelander's bullshit, you know, and he has for a long time,

13:37but this is the first time where I think he's just been through so much that like,

13:40what can Homelander do at this point that would at all make him flinch? Uh, and I, I loved playing

13:47that

13:47scene because I'm, I'm used to being in a scene with Homelander and, and, you know, just playing

13:53that very real fear that Anthony is so good at eliciting. Um, but this was really fun to like,

14:00flip the script and, you know, have Huey, to play Huey from not a place of fear was so interesting

14:07this

14:07season and so fun and so full circle for the character. I loved every second of it.

14:11The first two episodes of The Boys are available to stream now on Prime Video.

14:16And for all your boys needs, make sure you keep it locked to IGN.

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