{"id":368448,"date":"2026-04-07T21:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/368448\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T21:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:16:08","slug":"eric-kripke-anxious-about-fan-reaction-to-final-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/368448\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Kripke “Anxious” About Fan Reaction to Final Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf the final season of Prime Video<\/a>\u2018s The Boys<\/a> hadn\u2019t been written before the 2024 election, you might think the new episodes were a bit too on the nose. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere are federal troops being sent into American cities, undesirables being rounded up and sent to \u201cfreedom camps,\u201d White House press briefings that devolve into jeering gaslighting sessions. And leading the country is a megalomaniac \u2014 Anthony Starr\u2019s always riveting Homelander \u2014 who might be going insane.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe acclaimed gross-out superhero show launches its fifth season on Wednesday with eight episodes that dive right into the drama\u2019s final arc as a group of anti-supe crusaders (led by Karl Urban\u2019s Butcher and Erin Moriarty\u2019s Starlight) try to find a way to stop Homelander and his gang (including Chace Crawford\u2019s The Deep, who\u2019s now a podcast bro advocating incel tropes) from ruining the country. While the show has always been a multi-pronged satire of Hollywood and social media, this season\u2019s political storylines will surely hit a bit different (see trailer below).<\/p>\n

\n\tOne wild-seeming storyline involves a character insisting on being compared to Jesus and, minutes after our chat with The Boys creator Eric Kripke, White House Faith Office senior adviser Pastor\u00a0Paula White\u00a0went viral<\/a> for gushingly comparing Trump to Jesus at an Easter event. Kripke swears none of this was intentional and, if anything, seems rather bummed about it. Here is our spoiler-free chat about the new episodes.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Boys has leaned into its political and authoritarian satire elements probably the most this season. Not in some forced way but a logical way \u2014 based on where the show started and how it progressed. But what\u2019s it been like for you guys watching the headlines leading up to the premiere, particularly since the show wrapped nearly a year ago? Even just the fact that the word \u201cHomeland,\u201d due to DHS and ICE, has become such a political villain right before your final season.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not a great feeling. It\u2019s a sinking feeling. It\u2019s never great when the world out-crazies your superhero show with exploding penises. The stuff that has come to pass since we wrote it \u2014 including internment camps, sending federal troops into cities \u2026 even tiny references like that clown in charge of the military. [In the show we have a character named] General Mayhem. When you think of the clown currently in charge, the fucking Secretary of\u2026 ?<\/p>\n

\n\tSecretary of War. <\/p>\n

\n\tSecretary of War! Because he needs to be extra macho [with his title changing from Secretary of Defense]. When we were writing [the season] \u2014 and I swear I\u2019m not making this up \u2014 we genuinely thought it was a little out there, that this is the furthest we were venturing into full-on sci-fi \u2014 or at least speculative fiction. And so much of it has come to pass already. It\u2019s really upsetting. I don\u2019t know what else to say about it. <\/p>\n

\n\tWithout giving away any spoilers, there\u2019s an episode midway through the season where I did wonder: Do y\u2019all ever think you might be too cynical about America? <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s interesting you say that. We\u2019re very aware people think the show can be cynical or dystopic. We really try \u2014 because we are hopeful people, as a group of writers \u2014 we really tried to make hope one of the main thematics this season. Like [being in] the worst possible circumstances without giving up, without becoming cynical, without putting your head in the sand. And that\u2019s really what the characters struggle with. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt was also really important to us \u2014 and it comes up again and again in the show \u2014 to really show that, our quarrel is not with people. You see characters like [spoiler omitted], who\u2019s clearly a right winger. But he\u2019s a good guy. And there\u2019s characters like that this season. Because we\u2019re trying to make the point that it\u2019s the leaders who are just really problematic. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere are repeated jokes about AI replacing screenwriters this season. I particularly like the one about a Taylor Sheridan AI that refuses to take notes. But be honest: Do you guys use AI for anything? <\/p>\n

\n\tI can confidently state the writers\u2019 room is 100 percent AI free. But I\u2019m not going to lie, I use it for synonyms all the time. It\u2019s better than Google because you can explain the tone and the context of the type of word you\u2019re looking for, and it\u2019s way better at coming up with synonyms. But so far, that\u2019s about it. That, and [making] stupid pictures of my friends. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs much as the show is a political satire, this season might have the most inside jokes about Hollywood that I\u2019ve seen from it yet. Like, you managed to pretty much hit every major topic The Hollywood Reporter has covered in the last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tI am so happy to hear you say that. We have this goal that \u2014 on top of everything else \u2014 we want to be the most accurate inside-Hollywood show. Obviously, [Apple TV\u2019s] The Studio does it better. But just to get in so many of those inside jokes \u2014 and the more obscure the better. Like the Taylor Sheridan thing came out of my kids watching Landman. So I\u2019m watching it like, \u201cThis is Landman? This is crazy.\u201d Then we started talking about it and it became a [show within the show titled] American Eagle. <\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve probably been asked this before, but do you ever have a moment in your writers\u2019 room where somebody actually gets offended by an idea? Like where somebody just says something that\u2019s just too far. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you come to work on this show, you know what you\u2019re signing on for. But I also have a really wide open door if there\u2019s something that\u2019s upsetting, to come to me and talk to me about it, and we\u2019ll deal with it. It\u2019s important to make the room feel like a safe space \u2014 the same way you want to make a set feel like it\u2019s a safe space. So it\u2019s safe to take risks and say things that might be insane. Or if you\u2019re taking on the voice of a hateful character, you have to say something really hateful. But the writers generally love each other so much that I think it\u2019s mostly been okay.<\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, what most excites you about the final season of The Boys?<\/p>\n

\n\tExcites is the wrong word. What makes me most \u2026 anxious about the final season is really hoping we land the plane. It\u2019s super hard to do a finale. Fans will retroactively judge the show based on how they feel about the finale. If we stiff it, they will definitely say, \u201cWell, that show wasn\u2019t as good as we thought it was.\u201d And it\u2019s almost like you\u2019re trying to secure your legacy with these finales. And it\u2019s the first finale I\u2019ve ever done, too \u2014 so it\u2019s not like I have any experience with it. So I\u2019m mostly anxious and girding my loins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, based on episodes one through seven, I think fans should be very pleased.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I should keep my loins wide open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the final season of Prime Video\u2018s The Boys hadn\u2019t been written before the 2024 election, you might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,16505,834,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-368448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-prime-video","13":"tag-the-boys","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}