The Boys is an American satirical superhero television series developed by Eric Kripke for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, it follows the eponymous team of vigilantes as they combat superpowered individuals, referred to as "Supes", who often abuse their powers for personal gain and work for a powerful company, Vought International, that ensures the general public views them as heroes. The story focuses on Hughie Campbell, a young electronics clerk, and Billy Butcher, a former SAS and CIA operative, who work together with the rest of the Boys against "The Seven", Vought's premier superhero team, led by the power-hungry Homelander.
The series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Elisabeth Shue, Colby Minifie, Aya Cash, Claudia Doumit, Jensen Ackles, Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Daveed Diggs.
Initially intended to be a feature-length film trilogy, the comic book series adaptation began development in 2008, with Adam McKay set to direct. Due to creative differences between the crew and the studios that picked it up, the project was left in development hell. Eventually, development for The Boys was revived in 2016 by Cinemax, which announced it would be reworked as a television series. Kripke was recruited to be the showrunner of the series, while Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg would be credited as executive producers. Amazon Studios obtained the series from Sony Pictures Television in November 2017, with production starting in May 2018 in Toronto, Canada.
The Boys premiered its first season of eight episodes on July 26, 2019. A second season premiered on September 4, 2020, with the third season following on June 3, 2022. In June 2022, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on June 13, 2024. In May 2024, the series was renewed for a fifth and final season, which premiered on April 8, 2026. As part of a shared universe, a spin-off web series, Seven on 7, premiered in July 2021; an adult animated anthology series, Diabolical, premiered in March 2022; and a second live-action television series, Gen V, premiered in September 2023. A prequel series, Vought Rising, is in production and set to premiere in 2027.
The Boys has received critical acclaim throughout its run, with praise for its performances, visuals, satirical themes, and action sequences, although the final two seasons were met with a more divisive response from audiences, partially due to right wing commentators. The series has won five awards from 17 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2021, and has won seven Critics' Choice Super Awards and six Astra TV Awards.
Premise The Boys is set in a universe where superpowered individuals (referred to as "Supes") are recognized as heroes by the general public and work for Vought International, a powerful corporation that markets and monetizes them. Outside their heroic personas, most Supes are corrupt, self-serving, and either recklessly cause collateral damage or actively commit various atrocities, unbeknownst to most of the general public. The series primarily focuses on two groups: The Boys, a group of initially CIA-sponsored and later independent black ops agents looking to bring down Vought and its corrupt superheroes; and The Seven, Vought's premier superhero team and the Boys' most powerful adversaries.
In the first season, the girlfriend of Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) is accidentally killed by A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) of The Seven. Hughie meets Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), who despises all superpowered beings due to Homelander (Antony Starr) raping his wife Becca, and joins his vigilante team known as The Boys in the hope of avenging his loved one. As a conflict ensues between the two groups, Annie January / Starlight (Erin Moriarty), a young and hopeful heroine, is forced to face the truth about the heroes she admires after she joins The Seven.
In the second season, on the run from the law, hunted by the Supes, and desperately trying to regroup and fight back against Vought, The Boys try to adjust to a new normal in hiding, with Butcher nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Annie, now aiding The Boys, must navigate her place in The Seven as Homelander sets his sights on taking complete control. His power is threatened with the addition of Stormfront (Aya Cash), a social media-savvy new Supe, who has an agenda and secret past of her own.
In the third season, one year after the Stormfront scandal, The Boys work for Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit)'s Bureau of Superhero Affairs to apprehend problematic Supes, having been at peace with The Seven; Butcher and Homelander itch to turn this peace and quiet into "blood and bone". When The Boys learn of a mysterious anti-Supe weapon, it sends them crashing into The Seven, starting a war and chasing the legend of the premier superhero: Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).
In the fourth season, six months after Soldier Boy's defeat, The Boys work with the CIA to assassinate Neuman in an effort to stop her from taking over the government. Concurrently, Neuman is under the control of Homelander, who is consolidating his power with help from Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), a supe known as the smartest person in the world. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca's and Homelander's son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and his position as leader of The Boys; the rest of the team is fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and stop Neuman before it is too late.
In the fifth and final season, The Boys and Butcher, who possess a virus capable of killing all Supes in the world, join forces one last time to try to end Homelander's reign, who now threatens to become immortal and immune to the virus with the discovery of V1, the first version of Compound V.
Cast and characters
Karl Urban as William "Billy" Butcher Jack Quaid as Hugh "Hughie" Campbell Jr. Antony Starr as John / Homelander Erin Moriarty as Annie January / Starlight Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw / Queen Maeve (seasons 1–3) Jessie T. Usher as Reggie Franklin / A-Train Laz Alonso as Marvin T. "Mother's" Milk / M.M. Chace Crawford as Kevin Kohler / The Deep Tomer Capone as Serge "Frenchie" Les Saintes / The Frenchman Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko Miyashiro / The Female Nathan Mitchell as Earving / Black Noir (seasons 1–3) and Justin / Black Noir II (seasons 4–5) Elisabeth Shue as Madelyn Stillwell (season 1; guest seasons 2, 5) Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett (seasons 2–5; recurring season 1) Aya Cash as Clara Vought (née Klara Risinger) / Liberty / Stormfront (season 2; guest seasons 3, 5) Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman / Nadia Khayat (seasons 3–4; recurring season 2) Jensen Ackles as Ben / Soldier Boy (season 3; guest season 4; recurring season 5) Cameron Crovetti as Ryan Butcher (seasons 4–5; recurring seasons 2–3) Susan Heyward as Jessica "Sage" Bradley / Sister Sage (seasons 4–5) Valorie Curry as Misty Tucker Gray / Firecracker (seasons 4–5) Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Joe Kessler (season 4; guest season 5) Daveed Diggs as Aaron / Oh Father (season 5)
Episodes
Production Development A film adaptation of Garth Ennis's comic book series The Boys was in various stages of development between 2008 and 2016, initially at Columbia Pictures with Adam McKay directing and a budget of $100 million, until the project was abandoned over creative differences between the studio and McKay. Paramount Pictures secured the rights in August 2012 and revived the production. However, in April 2016, the film adaptation was cancelled, and it was reported that Cinemax would be developing a television series adaptation of the comic book instead. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who at the time were working on the series Preacher (also based on a comic book series by Ennis), were recruited as executive producers and directors for the pilot episode. Eric Kripke, a longtime fan of Ennis's work, was hired as the series showrunner and head writer.
On November 8, 2017, Amazon Studios acquired the rights to the television adaptation after Cinemax chose not to move forward with it. Sharon Tal Yguado, who had been hired that year to supervise future franchises made by Amazon, expressed her hopes that the series would offer a different take on the superhero genre at a time when Hollywood was saturated with superhero shows. That same day, Amazon greenlit the production of the first season of eight episodes, each with an estimated budget of $11.2 million ($ in ). Production was expected to begin in spring of 2018 for a planned release in 2019. Amazon Studios also committed to a run of at least five seasons, in line with Kripke's plans, hoping to replicate the success of hit genre dramas like Game of Thrones (2011–2019), Stranger Things (2016–2025), and The Walking Dead (2010–2022). On April 30, 2018, it was reported that Dan Trachtenberg was hired to direct the first episode of the series, replacing Rogen and Goldberg, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, but the duo would remain as executive producers.
A second season was announced on July 19, 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con a week before the series premiere, with Kripke having already begun writing the scripts. In December 2019, a teaser trailer confirmed that the second season would be released in 2020, and another trailer released in June 2020 confirmed it would premiere that September. Seeking to make the series a topic of conversation for longer, and hoping to replicate the success of various series, Kripke and the producers convinced Amazon to release episodes on a weekly basis.
A third season was announced at the after-show for San Diego Comic-Con@Home in 2020. Kripke revealed in October 2020 that he was writing scripts for the third season, shortly after Amazon had announced the spin-off series Gen V (2023–present), which served as a bridge between the third and fourth seasons of The Boys, with the latter being announced in June 2022 and planned for release in 2024.
On May 14, 2024, ahead of the fourth season premiere, Amazon announced the series was renewed for a fifth season. On June 11, 2024, Kripke announced that the fifth season would serve as the final season. Kripke revealed the news on Twitter, tweeting: "#TheBoys Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season! Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax."
In June 2024, Rogen and Goldberg recalled McKay's prior involvement and the original page-to-screen adaptation plan. It was revealed that there were serious plans to have The Boys become a three-film trilogy; the first film went as far as a finished screenplay and even demo animatics of scenes. However, the planned trilogy, like many superhero films in pre-MCU Hollywood, was scrapped. "I wouldn't change how it worked out because the show is amazing. But [McKay] was doing really cool stuff. It just came down to it being 2008, not 2018. I just don't think [Hollywood was] ready for it yet", explained The Boys comic book co-creator and illustrator Darick Robertson.Multiple sources:
Back in December 2015, McKay himself elaborated on the difficulties he faced with his pitch, telling IndieWire: "I took it to every studio, every production financing place in town. And they were always like, 'No.' I had this crazy pre-viz reel that I'd done, and it was insane, like superheroes doing cocaine. And they all said, lazily, 'So it's like Watchmen?' And then eventually I started realizing that no one was going to do it and I started pitching the craziest aspects of it, embracing the fact that they hated it."