SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Gen V,” now streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The end of “Gen V” Season 2 opened the door to the final chapter of “The Boys,” with a finale that proved that at least one character in the Vought Cinematic Universe might have what it takes to destroy Homelander — since she just killed the supe who ultimately had created Homelander.
In the episode, titled “Trojan,” Marie (Jaz Sinclair) gets a handle on her blood-control powers to the extent she’s able to take down the all-powerful Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater) before he can take out all the “weaker” supe students at God U.
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But just because Godolokin is dead — for sure this time — doesn’t mean he’s finished in the world of “The Boys.” Eric Kripke, “The Boys” showrunner and “Gen V” co-creator, says he would love to bring “Wicked” star Slater into the “The Boys” prequel series “Vought Rising,” which is currently in production with stars Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash reprising their roles as Soldier Boy and Stormfront. For now, though, Kripke says: “He’s a little busy with this tiny independent film about witches, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.
“And he’s been doing press, and so it’s been a little tricky to schedule, but we’ve been trying,” Kripke continues. “If there’s a Season 2 of ‘Vought Rising,’ we would definitely have him in as Godolkin. I’m so fascinated by that character, and to bring him in beside Frederick Vought, and seeing those two monsters work together, would be a blast.”
(Speaking of Godolkin’s backstory, is Kripke looking to cast someone to play the still-unknown man who served as Godolkin’s first “puppet” before he took hold of Hamish Linklater’s Cipher? “Not yet,” he says. “But maybe.”)
Kripke says that when it premieres next year, the fifth and final season of “The Boys” will pick up “roughly six months” after where the “Gen V” Season 2 finale leaves off, with Marie and her friends joining Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) in their fight against Vought. “You’ll get a sense of this resistance that really kicks off at the end of ‘Gen V’ — how it’s been going — when you pick up ‘The Boys’ Season 5. And the spoiler is: Not well,” he says.
While Marie’s powers are powerful, Kripke says he and “Gen V” showrunner Michele Fazekas aren’t delivering her as a deus ex machina who’s fully primed and ready to solve the big-bad Homelander problem in “The Boys.”
“She’s super powerful, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s amazing at controlling it,” Kripke says. “She’s not Keanu at the end of ‘The Matrix,’ because — based on the next couple ‘Matrixes’ — it’s not great for drama. You want a character who’s really struggling and growing, especially a kid like Marie. So even though she has a lot of raw power, she has to learn how to control it.”
Based on everything fans have seen by the end of the “Gen V” Season 2 finale, Kripke can now confirm the extent of Marie’s power as such: “She controls blood down to the cellular level, so that can mean manipulating it around to heal someone. That could mean making the blood inside their head combustible. That can mean using it as a whip. She has ultimate control over any cell that’s part of someone’s blood — question mark?”
According to Kripke, the writers’ room has defined Marie’s power as within “the same branch of the tree” as Victoria Neuman’s, the head-popping vice president who Butcher killed in the Season 4 finale of “The Boys” — but “more powerful,” he says. And that would be key going into any future battle with Homelander, who still terrified Neuman.
See below for more from Variety‘s “Gen V” Season 2 finale interview with Kripke, who talks about plans for a possible Season 3, a potential “The Boys” video game — and an update on the Mexico-set spinoff of “The Boys.”
Are there plans for “Gen V” Season 3 after “The Boys” final season?
We’d like to. I mean, we have story, we’ve talked about it, and I actually love it. I love the notions that have been kicked around. It’s going to come down to that classic, very boring television answer, which is ratings. We need enough people to watch to justify Amazon picking us up for a third season. We don’t know. They’re watching the numbers closely. They’re keeping a pretty tight poker face right now, but hopefully. Tell your friends, watch the show. Let’s get a Season 3!
I’ve heard some rumblings that there might be a video game adaptation that works. We’ve seen characters like Homelander pop up as integrations in some other games like “Mortal Kombat 1” — but is an actual “The Boys” video game adaptation in the works?
There is currently a desire, but no hard plans for, a console game. I don’t want to give anything away, because I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say or not, but there are plans for some other kinds of video games that aren’t necessarily Xbox or PlayStation.
Is the Mexico-set “The Boys” spinoff series still in the works, and if so, where would that take place in “The Boys” timeline?
It is still in the works. Gareth [Dunnet-Alcocer], who’s an amazing writer, is writing drafts right now. It’s in development. I think it’s hilarious. But we’ll see, it’s going through the bumpy rapids of development. It would take place at some point after Season 5 of “The Boys.”
Knowing that there’s a chance for that, and there’s a chance for “Gen V” Season 3, would we potentially see some existing “The Boys” main series characters continue on depending on who survives?
Yes, that would be the hope, that there’s certain characters that we could cross over into “The Boys” Mexico [spinoff]. But we’ll see.
So by the end of “The Boys,” what would you say the goal is? What story is it you are trying to end by the end of “The Boys”?
I would say we’re trying to land the plane on, really, the primary concerns of “The Boys,” which are Butcher vs. Homelander; the love story of Hughie and Annie; the fraught big brother/little brother relationship of Butcher and Hughie — all the things that “The Boys” are about, we’re trying to bring to a conclusion in a surprising and emotional way.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story listed the incorrect title for the “Gen V” Season 2 finale, which is “Trojan.”