‘This Is Freaking Modern Shakespeare’

“The Boys” showrunner Eric Kripke and cast members Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Chace Crawford and more took to the stage for a far-ranging panel discussion focused on the fifth and final season of the Prime Video superhero series.

Having first debuted in 2019, the series concluded this past May with Season 5, ending the show’s seven-year run on TV with a death-filled, action-packed finale. Speaking on the choice to end “The Boys” in such a way, Kripke, who also serves as the show’s executive producer, explained that they wanted the finale to have an emotional feeling.

“So much of a series finale is saying goodbye to your friends. It’s such an interesting experience that you bring these people into your home for years. And so when they’re heading off and you’re never going to see them again, you want to feel the emotion and the melancholy of it, at least I do when I watch a finale,” said Kripke. “We were trying to tell this story very intentionally. We wanted to leave things messy…. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, but with an incredible amount of sacrifice and resilience and taking care of each other, we can find happiness.”

But it was still important to Kripke to have Homelander (Antony Starr) die the way he did — without powers and live on television. “We just wanted to show that when you take power away from somebody like that, they are immediately pathetic and blubbering and sniveling,” he said.

Jack Quaid, who plays Hughie Campbell, spoke to his character’s arc in the final season. “I think that’s the thing about playing the good guy character that I think Eric and the writers handled so beautifully is that he’s the good one, but if that’s never tested, then who cares?” he said. “I think the true heroic thing about Hughie is that he learns from [his mistakes], he adjusts, he’s trying his best. And I think this is a thing that you say a lot, Eric, which is that true heroism isn’t this one big grand sweeping gesture… I think Hughie really embodies that. ”

In addition to Homelander’s finale death, Jessie T. Usher’s A-Train died in the season premiere. Usher reflected on learning what was in store for his character. “Eric called me a long time before we got the pages and told me what was going to happen to A-Train and how it was going to happen and the ribbon that he was going to tie A-train’s story up in,” said Usher. “I told him, I was like, ‘This is freaking modern Shakespeare.’”

When speaking about The Deep’s death, Chase Crawford similarly reflected on how he felt the series “was perfectly wrapped up.” “The fact that Eric let me make it to the finale was amazing. I mean, I honestly thought I was going to die every season,” he joked.

And while the finale may have featured more than a few violent deaths, not everyone’s story concluded tragically. Moriarty’s Annie got a happy ending. “I love it when something wraps up in a positive way for a character, but it doesn’t feel cliche,” she said. “It just feels justifiably full of hope in a world that’s otherwise been cynical.”

Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Jensen Ackles, Nathan Mitchell, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry and Daveed Diggs also spoke on the panel, which was moderated by Joanna Robinson.