Supe-ocalypse now

“So how about it, you lot? One last go?”

Credit: YouTube/Prime Video

Prime Video dropped an extended teaser for the fifth and final season of The Boys—based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson—during CCXP in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And it looks like we’re getting nothing less than a full-on Supe-ocalypse as an all-powerful Homelander seeks revenge on The Boys.

(Spoilers for prior seasons of The Boys and S2 of Gen V below.)

Things were not looking good for our antiheroes after theS4 finale. They managed to thwart the assassination of newly elected US President Robert Singer, but new Vought CEO/evil Supe Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) essentially overthrew the election and installed Senator Steve Calhoun (David Andrews) as president. Calhoun declared martial law, and naturally Homelander (Antony “Give Him an Emmy Already” Starr) swore loyalty as his chief enforcer. Butcher (Karl Urban) and Annie (Erin Moriarty) escaped, but the rest of The Boys were rounded up and placed in re-education—er, “Freedom”—camps.

The second season of spinoff series Gen V was set after those events, and the finale concluded with Annie recruiting the main cast members to join the fight against Homelander and the Supes. Season 5 of The Boys picks up where the Gen V finale left off. Per the official premise:

In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.

Most of the main cast is returning for the final season (although R.I.P. Claudia Doumit’s Victoria Neuman), and we’ll also see the return of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), aka Homelander’s daddy, revealed in the S4 finale mid-credits scene to be alive and chilling out in cryostorage. Showrunner Eric Kripke has said that he wanted to delve a little deeper into that father/son relationship, particularly since Soldier Boy has switched sides and aligned with the Supes after Butcher tried to kill him in S3.

Kripke has also been pretty open about the fact that all bets are off when it comes to character deaths, since this is the final season. And we can probably expect some of the same disturbing real-world parallels that made S4 so polarizing among fans (although as Kripke has said, the show has never been subtle about Homelander being evil).

In addition, Jared Padalecki—who co-starred with Ackles in the Kripke series Supernatural—will join the cast in an as-yet-undisclosed role, so it will be a reunion of sorts. This season will also feature several characters from Gen V: Jordan (London Thor), Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Emma/Little Cricket (Lizze Broadway), Cate (Maddie Phillips), Sam (Asa Germann), and Annabeth (Keeya King).

The first two episodes of The Boys’ fifth and final season premiere on April 8, 2026, on Prime Video, with new episodes airing each week through May 20, 2026. But it won’t be the end of the franchise. We don’t know yet if Gen V is getting a third season—it likely depends on who survives the showdown with Homelander and the Supes—but there is a prequel series, Vought Rising, in the works—starring Ackles and Aya Cash reprising their Soldier Boy and Liberty/Stormfront roles, respectively—as well as The Boys: Mexico.

Credit: Prime Video

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.