{"id":399433,"date":"2026-04-19T00:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T00:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399433\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T00:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T00:10:09","slug":"7-years-later-the-boys-original-villain-is-now-the-key-to-homelander-butchers-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399433\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Years Later, The Boys’ Original Villain Is Now the Key to Homelander & Butcher’s Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven years after The Boys<\/a> first premiered, the series is approaching its conclusion in Season 5 \u2014 and its original villain is now the key to Homelander and Butcher\u2019s ending. Despite other villains and storylines cropping up throughout the first four seasons of The Boys<\/a>, the feud between Homelander and Butcher remains the beating heart of the show. It represents two extreme and opposing ideologies, as well as the larger conflict between supes vs. non-supes. And with just a few episodes left to wrap up the story, Season 5 will be tasked with determining who comes out on top, both in the larger war and between Homelander and Butcher. SPOILERS ahead for The Boys Season 5, Episodes 1-3.<\/p>\n

Both are resorting to extremes to defeat the other, with Homelander waking Soldier Boy and seeking out V1<\/a>, while Butcher uses Ryan for his own ends and intends to use the supe virus, whether it kills him and his allies or not. All these factors will likely contribute to The Boys\u2018 endgame in Season 5<\/a>. But there\u2019s officially another wild card that could change everything: the show\u2019s original villain, Giancarlo Esposito\u2019s Stan Edgar. <\/p>\n

Stan Edgar Is Back & Poised to Play an Important Role in The Boys Season 5<\/p>\n

\"StanImage via Jasper Savage\/Prime Video<\/p>\n

Stan Edgar returns in The Boys Season 5, Episode 3, and the latest installment sets him up to play a major role in the grand finale. After Soldier Boy survives the supe virus, courtesy of the V1 in his bloodstream, The Boys seek out Stan to learn more about the original strain of Compound V. The series uses his meeting with Marie Moreau in Gen V Season 2<\/a> to set this up, though the truce between Stan and the show\u2019s anti-heroes doesn\u2019t last long. When the plan to use Translucent\u2019s son, Maverick, against their enemies backfires, Stan quickly turns on them. However, it ends with him being captured by the Deep and taken to Vought. After his reunion with Homelander, Stan has become one of the most important players in the series\u2019 final outing \u2014 and it\u2019s hard to say who that will favor.<\/p>\n

Stan Edgar Will Determine Who Wins: Homelander or Butcher<\/p>\n

\"HomelanderImage via Prime Video<\/p>\n

Considering Stan Edgar\u2019s knowledge of V1, he\u2019s now poised to be the deciding factor of the fight between Homelander and Butcher, but that doesn\u2019t exactly bode well. Stan has no reason to support either of them, as Homelander is the reason he\u2019s no longer at Vought, and Butcher is the one who killed his adopted daughter at the end of The Boys Season 4<\/a>. From an emotional standpoint, the odds favor Homelander over Butcher. And that\u2019s not to mention that The Boys Season 5, Episode 3 closes with Stan in Homelander\u2019s clutches, giving the supe access to and leverage over him.<\/p>\n

If Stan refuses to make V1 for Homelander, or pretends to but then tricks him, he could tilt the odds in The Boys\u2019 favor. It\u2019s a scenario that could favor Stan, as he\u2019d benefit from Homelander\u2019s downfall as much as anyone. But it could also get him killed, and the man isn\u2019t one to choose the greater good over self-preservation. Depending what Homelander offers him, Stan could also gain from helping the supe. His established hatred for Butcher in Episode 3 gives him further incentive to act out of spite, too. It really is a toss-up to leave everything riding on Stan Edgar, which only makes the future of The Boys more exciting.<\/p>\n

The Boys\u2019 Original Villain Proves the Cycle Continues Beyond Homelander & Butcher<\/p>\n

\"Stan<\/p>\n

Stan may decide what happens between Homelander and Butcher, but his conversation with MM in Episode 3 proves there won\u2019t really be a winner in this fight. Both are likely to die by the end of The Boys Season 5, especially if Stan\u2019s actions end up helping the titular team spread the virus. And at the end of the day, whatever decision he makes, Stan is only fighting for himself. MM catches onto this, realizing he still has ambitions to climb to the top of Vought again. Stan readily admits that something else will take the place of supes if they succeed at eliminating them. He\u2019s likely not wrong. While Butcher vs. Homelander must be decided this season, the problems that arise from power and greed will carry on. And regardless of who he helps, Stan remains a villain \u2014 one all too happy to continue and capitalize on those very problems. <\/p>\n

What do you think Stan Edgar will do in The Boys? Leave a comment and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven years after The Boys first premiered, the series is approaching its conclusion in Season 5 \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,53235,19622,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-399433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-regular-feature","12":"tag-the-boys","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}