{"id":478640,"date":"2026-03-16T13:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478640\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:20:13","slug":"the-boys-season-5-theory-reveals-homelander-isnt-the-shows-final-villain-itll-be-divisive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478640\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boys Season 5 Theory Reveals Homelander Isn\u2019t the Show\u2019s Final Villain (& It\u2019ll Be Divisive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boys<\/a> season 5 will be the final season of Amazon Prime Video\u2019s iconic superhero show, and if this theory is right, the conclusion could be incredibly divisive. Homelander has been the main villain of The Boys since episode 1, and throughout the show so far, the titular team\u2019s goal has been to kill him. While it is expected that The Boys\u2019 final battle with Homelander<\/a> will happen in the series finale, this may not be the case.<\/p>\n

The Boys season 4 ends things in a scary place, with Homelander essentially gaining control over the White House. Homelander\u2019s supe army has kidnapped dissidents like The Boys and any other humans or supes who are against his agenda. Homelander\u2019s control over the United States is terrifying, but he may not be the scariest villain in the final season. WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for The Boys comics!<\/p>\n

If Billy Butcher Is Really The Boys\u2019 Final Villain, It Will Be Controversial<\/p>\n

\"BillyAmazon Prime Video<\/p>\n

One popular The Boys season 5 theory is that the show will do a fairly accurate adaptation of the comic book series\u2019 ending. In the comics, Billy Butcher becomes the main villain of the show. The Boys learn that Butcher has ambitions to commit a genocide of supes, so they decide to stop him. Butcher kills MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko, with his final fight being against Hughie. Luckily, Hughie gets the upper hand and kills Butcher.<\/p>\n

Black Noir isn\u2019t a Homelander clone in the Prime series, so Homelander\u2019s death will have to be changed significantly<\/a>. However, some fans are theorizing that Butcher will kill Homelander before The Boys finale, leaving Butcher\u2019s battle with Hughie and the rest of the heroes for the finale. Although The Boys has been building up to a final confrontation with Homelander this entire time, this theory states that it will pull the rug out from under fans by switching things up and concluding with a final confrontation with Butcher.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this would be incredibly divisive. Butcher has been going down a dark path in recent seasons of The Boys. So, it wouldn\u2019t be a stretch for him to have genocidal tendencies when it comes to supes. After all, he was in favor of using the supe virus that would kill basically every supe on Earth. However, the TV show\u2019s Butcher is much more likable than the version from the comics, so having him go full villain in the finale could turn some viewers off.<\/p>\n

On top of that, killing Homelander off too early could make The Boys finale feel a bit anticlimactic. After taking out Homelander, the fight between humans seems much smaller-scale. While it would be interesting emotionally, it would be weird to have the main characters achieve their goal before the climax, only for the climax to be a different battle entirely.<\/p>\n

Having Butcher die while fighting Homelander due to his hatred of supes driving him to madness would be fine. This seems like it still gets at what The Boys comic series was going for without taking things nearly as far. However, if The Boys TV show takes that extra step and makes Butcher a full-on villain, it could be a step too far for some.<\/p>\n

The Boys Hasn\u2019t Been Faithful To The Comics Yet, So It Shouldn\u2019t Start Now<\/p>\n

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

Prime\u2019s The Boys series is an incredibly loose adaptation of The Boys comics<\/a>. It has some of the same aesthetics as the series, but most of the plot points and social commentary have been completely redone. Yes, Homelander ends up in the White House in both the show and the comics. However, the ways in which he achieves this goal are entirely different, so it would be weird for this arc to end in the same way.<\/p>\n

Since the very beginning of the show, The Boys has never seemed too worried about being a faithful adaptation of the comics. After all, The Boys comic series isn\u2019t all that beloved in the first place, so a reverence to the source material wouldn\u2019t have been the right call for the show.<\/p>\n

Instead of having Butcher become the villain, the best path would be for season 5 to come up with something new. Most of the most memorable moments from the show are the original ideas that the writers came up with independently of the comics. Amazon Prime Video\u2019s The Boys has built its own story, and in order to stick the landing, it needs its own ending.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below\u00a0and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boys season 5 will be the final season of Amazon Prime Video\u2019s iconic superhero show, and if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,88885,16635,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-regular-feature","tag-the-boys","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}