The Boys Season 4

When The Boys premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2019, it immediately became a huge hit, bolstered by its shocking gore and gallows humor. It acted as a kind of antidote to the studio-mandated optimism of Marvel and the ultra-serious self-importance of DC. Since then, fans have gotten hooked on Eric Kripke’s adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book series and are eagerly awaiting The Boys Season 4.

*SPOILERS FOR THE BOYS SEASON 1-3 BELOW*

The Boys Season 4 will likely pick up on the events of last season when the titular anti-Supes crew attempted to use a revived former Vought International superstar Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) to take down the increasingly unhinged Homelander (Antony Starr).

However, it turns out that Soldier Boy was at least as bad as the threat they were trying to take down and had to be neutralized himself. As one could expect, there is a whole lot that can happen in the next season.

THE BOYS SEASON 4 DOES NOT YET HAVE A RELEASE DATE

Unsurprisingly, The Boys Season 4 was greenlit by Amazon Studios before the third season was even halfway through. The show has been massively popular and critically acclaimed. So the studio will probably be up for as many seasons as showrunner Eric Kripke can adapt topical socio-political events to ultraviolent superhumans fighting one another.

However, there has been no officially announced release date for the fourth season. There was approximately a year between the first and second seasons and then two years until the third, so we might be in a little bit of a wait. Season 3 concluded in July 2022, so we can start counting down from there.

THE BOYS SEASON 4 WILL LIKELY FOCUS ON VICTORIA NEUMAN AS A PRIMARY VILLAIN

Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) was introduced in the second season of The Boys, initially as an idealistic and charismatic U.S. Congresswoman combating Vought International and its history of shady business (read: evil and murderous deeds).

However, it eventually was revealed that Neuman herself was a Supe, raised in a Vought facility, and eventually adopted by Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito).

The Boys Season 4 will likely see Victoria Neuman take an even more significant role, as she closed out Season 3 by fully allying herself with the Homelander. The season finale saw her becoming the running mate to US Secretary of Defense Robert Singer in the Presidential race, after the Deep (Chace Crawford) drowned the last potential VP at the behest of the Homelander.

While the Homelander might have godlike superhuman powers (courtesy of Vought’s pharmaceuticals), it is clear that Neuman has the intelligence and long-range planning abilities (courtesy of her adoptive father) to be the more dangerous opposition to the Boys.

THE HOMELANDER WILL HAVE HIS SON RYAN BY HIS SIDE

For most of the series, Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) has been a relatively minor character, but The Boys Season 4 promises to bring him into much more prominence. However, that is unlikely to be a good thing for our intrepid crew of anti-Supe vigilantes, given that Ryan has seemingly allied himself with the Homelander.

When Ryan was first introduced in Season 1 (initially played by Parker Corno), he was unaware that the Homelander was his biological father, having been raised in a secret facility with his mother Becca Butcher (Shantel VanSanten). The Homelander was unaware, as well. However, once the Homelander discovered that his sexual assault on Becca (who was married at the time to Billy Butcher, who believed she had died in childbirth) resulted in a child, he was eager to form a relationship with Ryan.

Initially, Ryan was cautious around the Homelander and rarely seemed to exhibit any superpowers. However, Ryan inadvertently killed his mother with his heat vision while trying to save her from his father’s Nazi lover Stormfront (Aya Cash). This resulted in Ryan being taken away from the Homelander, only for Victoria Neuman to reveal his location to the Supe in Season 3.

At that point, it seemed that the Homelander and Ryan genuinely managed to build a rapport. This was increased when Ryan’s biological grandfather Soldier Boy attacked the child and Homelander and Butcher teamed up against the (more) insane Supe.

In the season’s most chilling moment, Ryan and Homelander were last seen at a political rally, where a member of the audience threw a can at the boy, only to be instantly and gorily killed by Homelander, to the delight of the crowd. Ryan’s slowly growing smile at the applause his father received for murdering someone with impunity probably does not spell very happy things for The Boys Season 4.

BUTCHER HAS ONLY MONTHS TO LIVE

One of the most significant events that The Boys Season 4 will have to reckon with is Butcher’s use of v24 or “Temp V,” the temporary form of Vought International’s superpower drug Compound V.

Within the universe of The Boys, Compound V was developed by a scientist named Frederick Vought for Nazi Germany at some point during World War II. The original form gave adult humans incredible superpowers and increased lifespans. By the time of the show, it appears Vought has switched to a diluted formula that has a high likelihood of giving newborns powers but an even higher probability of fatalities for adults.

In more recent times, Temp V was developed to give adults temporary superpowers, but at the cost of becoming lethal to users after only a few doses. When The Boys Season 4 begins, it will be with the knowledge that team leader Butcher has developed numerous brain tumors and has approximately 18 months to live as of the Season 3 finale.

THE FINALE OF THE BOYS SEASON 4 SEEMS TO HAVE TO DO WITH AN ASSASSINATION

According to a Tweet by series creator and showrunner Eric Kripke, the finale of The Boys Season 4 is titled “Assassination Run.” While there are no details beyond that tease, given that the season will prominently feature a malevolent Supe in a Presidential campaign suggests there will be some kind of political assassination attempt in the works.

GIANCARLO ESPOSITO MAY RETURN AS VOUGHT INTERNATIONAL’S STAN EDGAR

Giancarlo Esposito has played Vought International CEO Stan Edgar since the first season of the show, essentially playing the Big Bad of the series, controlling superpowerful but easily manipulated pawns like the Homelander against the Boys. However, at the end of Season 3, Edgar was ousted from power in the company by Homelander and his own adoptive daughter Victoria Neuman.

It remains unclear whether Stan Edgar will return in The Boys Season 4, but Esposito has expressed his willingness to continue playing the character.

THE BOYS SEASON 4 WILL NOT BE THE END OF THE SERIES

While The Boys has not yet been renewed for more episodes beyond Season 4, Eric Kripke has already made it clear the story will not be wrapped up any time soon. In addition to the ever-increasing number of spin-offs of the show, it seems safe to assume we will be getting an announcement of The Boys Season 5 any day now.