Warning: There are spoilers ahead for The Boys series finale.The Boys creator and showrunner Eric Kripke reveals why Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is absent from the series finale.
After being a member of The Seven in The Boys seasons 1-3, Maeve decides to take a stand and actively fight against Homelander (Antony Starr) in season 3. With Homelander believing her to be dead after the season 3 finale, she departs for a quiet life with her partner, Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude). Given Maeve’s central role earlier in the story, there was speculation about her returning for season 5, but this did not come to fruition.
Vought International · Classified Assessment
The Boys
Trivia Challenge
“With great power comes the absolute certainty that you’ll turn into a right c***.”
⚡VoughtTrust us
💥SupesDiabolical
🔨The BoysOi!
🔒SecretsCompound V
💀Deep CutsBloody hell
ENTER VOUGHT TOWER →
01
Vought International manages America’s most famous superhero team — a corporate-controlled group of Supes who are more brand than hero. What is this elite superhero team called?
AThe Avengers
BThe Seven
CThe Elite
DThe Guardians
✓ Correct! The Seven is Vought’s flagship superhero team, led by Homelander. Despite their public image as Earth’s greatest heroes, the team is a corporate product — every rescue staged, every smile focus-grouped, every member replaceable if their Q-scores drop.
✗ Not quite! The answer is The Seven. Vought’s premiere superhero team includes Homelander, Queen Maeve, A-Train, The Deep, Black Noir, Starlight, and others. The team is less about saving the world and more about box office numbers and merchandise deals.
NEXT →
02
Hughie Campbell was living an ordinary life until a horrifying incident involving a Supe shattered his world and set the entire series in motion. What happened to Hughie’s girlfriend Robin?
AHomelander lasered her during a fight
BShe was caught in a Vought cover-up explosion
CA-Train ran through her at super speed
DTranslucent accidentally crushed her
✓ Correct! A-Train literally ran through Robin at super speed, leaving Hughie holding only her severed hands. This brutal, senseless death — and Vought’s attempt to buy Hughie’s silence — is what drives him into Billy Butcher’s arms and ignites the entire series.
✗ Not quite! The answer is that A-Train ran through Robin at super speed. In the show’s devastating opening scene, A-Train — high on Compound V and racing to keep his speedster title — plows through Robin on a sidewalk, leaving Hughie holding her severed hands and nothing else.
NEXT →
03
Vought International has been hiding a massive secret: Supes aren’t born — they’re made. What is the name of the chemical compound that Vought uses to create people with superpowers?
ACompound V
BSerum X
CSuper Soldier Serum
DGenesis Formula
✓ Correct! Compound V is the secret drug that gives Supes their powers, originally developed by Frederick Vought, a former Nazi scientist. Vought injects babies with it to create superheroes they can profit from — the biggest lie in the show’s universe is that Supes are “gifts from God.”
✗ Not quite! The answer is Compound V. This blue serum, created by Vought’s founder Frederick Vought during World War II, is what gives every Supe their abilities. Vought has spent decades concealing this, maintaining the fiction that superheroes are divinely gifted rather than chemically manufactured.
NEXT →
04
Before she was Starlight — the newest member of The Seven — she was just a young woman from Iowa who dreamed of being a real hero. What is Starlight’s real name?
AAnnie Walker
BKaren Starr
CStella Stevens
DAnnie January
✓ Correct! Annie January is Starlight’s real name. Played by Erin Moriarty, Annie joined The Seven believing she could make a real difference, only to discover that Vought’s heroes were anything but heroic. Her relationship with Hughie and her moral backbone make her one of the show’s true heroes.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Annie January. Starlight’s real name reflects her small-town Iowa roots — she was raised by her mother to become a Supe celebrity, injected with Compound V as a baby. Annie’s journey from wide-eyed idealist to disillusioned rebel is central to the entire series.
NEXT →
05
Season 2’s most shocking twist revealed that a prominent political figure is secretly a Supe with the terrifying ability to make people’s heads explode. Who is this hidden Supe?
AGrace Mallory
BVictoria Neuman
CStormfront
DSusan Raynor
✓ Correct! Victoria Neuman, played by Claudia Doumit, is the congresswoman who publicly campaigns against Vought while secretly being a Supe herself. Her ability to pop heads from a distance makes her one of the most dangerous characters in the series — and her political ambitions make her even scarier.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Victoria Neuman. While she appears to be an anti-Vought crusader in Congress, she’s secretly a Supe with the power to detonate people’s heads from a distance. Susan Raynor was actually one of her victims. Neuman’s true allegiances make her the show’s most unpredictable wildcard.
NEXT →
06
After being kicked out of The Seven and exiled to Sandusky, Ohio, The Deep joins a mysterious organization that promises to restore his status. What is this group called?
AVought Anonymous
BPayback
CThe Church of the Collective
DThe Believe Movement
✓ Correct! The Church of the Collective is a Scientology-like cult that manipulates The Deep (and later A-Train) by promising to help them regain their spot on The Seven. Led by the charismatic Alastair Adana, the Church uses blackmail and brainwashing to control its members.
✗ Not quite! The answer is The Church of the Collective. This Scientology-inspired cult preys on disgraced Supes like The Deep, offering a path back to fame in exchange for total loyalty. Payback is actually a different team — the predecessor to The Seven, featured in Season 3’s Soldier Boy storyline.
NEXT →
07
In Season 3, Billy Butcher gains temporary superpowers — including heat vision similar to Homelander’s — by taking a new experimental substance. What is this compound called?
ATemp V
BCompound X
CPermanent V
DSuper Serum
✓ Correct! Temp V (also known as V24) grants temporary superpowers for 24 hours. Butcher uses it to go toe-to-toe with Homelander, gaining laser eyes and super strength. But the drug comes with a deadly cost — repeated use causes fatal brain lesions, giving Butcher a death sentence.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Temp V. Also designated V24 by Vought, this experimental compound grants 24 hours of superpowers before wearing off. Both Butcher and Hughie take it in Season 3, but each dose causes progressive brain damage — a ticking clock that raises the stakes dramatically.
NEXT →
08
Homelander’s most vulnerable point isn’t kryptonite — it’s his son, the first naturally-born Supe whose mother is Becca Butcher. What is the name of Homelander’s son?
ATeddy
BRyan
CJohn
DCole
✓ Correct! Ryan Butcher is the son of Homelander and Becca Butcher, and the first Supe to be born with powers naturally rather than being injected with Compound V. Ryan is the emotional linchpin of the series — both Homelander and Butcher see him as the key to their very different visions of the future.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Ryan. Becca Butcher raised Ryan in a hidden Vought compound, keeping him away from Homelander. As the only naturally-born Supe, Ryan is powerful enough to rival his father — and the battle for his soul between Homelander and Butcher drives the show’s later seasons.
REVEAL MY SCORE →
Vought Assessment Complete
Your Dossier
⚡
/ 8
Are you diabolical enough to know all The Boys’ secrets?
↻ PLAY AGAIN
In an interview with Gold Derby, Kripke explains that he reached out to McElligott about returning for The Boys season 5, but she declined due to her retirement from acting and a scheduling conflict. He emphasizes that as much as he would have liked Maeve to come back, the behind-the-scenes reasons it didn’t work out are “a very friendly, non-controversial thing.” Check out Kripke’s comments below:
I would have loved to have had Maeve. I was in conversation with Dom. We still email once in a while. She’s mostly retired from acting, and her schedule didn’t work out. It was all a very friendly, non-controversial thing. I was like, “If we wrote it, would you do it?” And she’s like, “I’m kind of out of it, and I’m busy, and unfortunately I can’t, but send everyone my love.” That was sort of it.
Even though Maeve does not appear in the episode, Kripke still wanted her character’s legacy to play a role. He shared with TV Insider that this is why “she shows up in the recap and in a way to show that Maeve passed the torch to Annie, and now Annie is passing the torch to Marie, and that there’s this lineage of strong women that started with Maeve. We wanted to bring up Maeve’s spirit if we couldn’t actually bring her up in person.”
The scene from The Boys series finale that Kripke is referring to is when Starlight/Annie January (Erin Moriarty) sits with Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and recalls when she first met Maeve and how she swore she would never become jaded and detached like her. However, when Annie herself went down this path, Marie reminded her to keep fighting, just as Annie did for Maeve when she was at a low point. In this sense, the impact of McElligott’s character is still felt as the show comes to a close.
Alongside Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Maeve could have been another fitting character to help take down Homelander at the very end. That being said, it was not essential to the story, especially as the climactic showdown in the Oval Office is focused on the aforementioned individuals and providing resolutions to their arcs.
By confronting Homelander instead of continuing to live in fear of him and choosing to live the life she wanted with Elena, Maeve’s arc at the end of season 3 is arguably complete as it is. There is also the matter of having lost her powers due to the energy blast from Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). She could have rejoined the fight without her powers, but there are other characters like Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) who were already helping in this capacity.
Following the release of The Boys season 3 finale, McElligott does not have any other movie or television credits. Outside the live-action series, she voiced Maeve in an episode of the animated The Boys Presents: Diabolical, along with prominent roles in Netflix’s House of Cards and ABC’s The Astronaut Wives Club. Kripke has previously said The Boys: Mexico spinoff, which is in development, will take place in the timeline after the main show, so there is a possibility of Maeve appearing there if McElligott ever wants to return to acting.
All episodes of The Boys are streaming on Prime Video.
Release Date
2019 – 2026-00-00
Showrunner
Eric Kripke
