The Boys Showrunner Suggests Show Will Go Far Beyond Original Five Season Plan

Erik Kripke, showrunner for Prime Video’s The Boys, has re-calculated his decision to end the show after five seasons. Based on the acclaimed graphic novels by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys is set in a world where superheroes are real, controlled by corporate conglomerates, and are narcissistic murderers. Standing against them are the titular Boys, led by the cockney rebel Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), who stop at nothing to bring the ‘supes’ to justice. Kripke previously said he has a five-season story for the series planned, but having learned from a past show he created, he’s now keeping his mouth shut regarding guessing the show’s length.

Speaking to Inverse, Erik Kripke joked about previously making predictions for how long his shows will run for.

“I have learned since then to not try to call the seasons as the person who, and this is without hyperbole, is literally the most wrong in entertainment history of how many seasons their show should go,” Kripke said.

The Boys

Release Date

July 26, 2019

Seasons

4

Before bringing The Boys to life, Kripke was the mastermind behind Supernatural. Kripke initially planned 5 seasons of that show as well, but the fantasy/horror powerhouse of TV ran for a whopping 15 seasons. Kripke had previously joked about this in a past X/Twitter Q&A, saying:

“My last show, Supernatural, I said five seasons for sure, and then that f*cker went 15.”

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While that was the Q&A that Kripke declared he had a five-season plan for The Boys, he told Inverse he has definitively learned his lesson. “Someone pointed that out to me and I was like, ‘You’re right. That’s ridiculous. I need to keep my mouth shut.’ And so I will.” At least Kripke can have a joke at his own expense. During the interview, he frequently laughed about how wrong his past estimate of Supernatural‘s length was. He continued:

“Guinness World Record of who is dumbest about how long their show should go, there would literally be a picture of me.”

The Boys Has Been Renewed for Season 5

If Eric Kripke did have a five season plan for The Boys, then Prime Video have given him the official go-ahead. The smash hit superhero show has been renewed for a fifth season well before its fourth has even been released. Season 4 releases this June and sees Homelander and Starlight divide America, while the Boys race to find a weapon capable of defeating the supes. While Kripke notoriously plans five seasons at a time, it seems Amazon doesn’t want the show to end there. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Amazon executive Vernon Sanders suggested that The Boys has a lot more life in it. Sanders’ statement said:

“Eric has had a vision for what this all leads to for years now, and we’ve been in an ongoing conversation about what comes next. So, it’s probably premature to talk about that beyond saying we believe in Eric, and if Eric is interested in continuing the story, we’ll be the first ones in line to really work with him on what that is.”