We've still got three months to go until we're reunited with Billy Butcher and co in The Boys season 5, though we're hopeful it will have been worth the wait. The upcoming chapter is set to mark the end of the outrageous, satirical superhero show – and showrunner Eric Kripke has already promised it'll "go out with a bang"...
The final installment will pick up in the aftermath of the Gen V season 2 ending, which saw Godolkin students Marie, Jordan, Kate and co officially join Starlight and... A-Train's Supe-led resistance against Homelander and Vought. More recently, a teaser trailer also revealed that Butcher's gang has reunited while Antony Starr's cape-wearing baddie has allied himself with Ryan and Soldier Boy. In short, things are gearing up for an all-out (and presumably very gory) war.
With the premiere approaching, the release date is locked in, so you can mark your calendars and set your watches. We've got everything else you need to know below, too, including juicy quotes like Karl Urban teasing a major death in the very first episode of the final season, the best fan theories, and much more besides. So, for all that and more, head below for the full lowdown on one of the best shows on Prime Video. But, watch out for Gen V season 2 spoilers. For even more, you can also see our guide to the most exciting upcoming shows on the way.
The Boys season 5 release date
The Boys season 5 will premiere on Prime Video on April 8, 2026. The season will land on the streamer with a two-episode premiere, followed by one episode weekly until the finale on May 20, 2026. It's certainly proved a patience tester, what with season 4 having concluded way back in July 2024.
While we'd known for quite some time that The Boys season 5 wouldn't land on Prime Video earlier than 2026, the official release date wasn't announced until Comic Con Experience Brasil on December 6, 2025. Prime Video then confirmed the news online alongside the season's first teaser trailer.
Filming on the fifth and final season started in November 2024 and wrapped in early July, with Eric Kripke confirming the news himself with a heartfelt Twitter post where he said goodbye to the The Boys set. "This is the last time I'll ever be on this set. It'll be torn down soon. It's bittersweet, but my primary feeling is gratitude," said the showrunner. "To The Boys family: I love you. To the fans: I can't wait for you to see the grand finale. That's a wrap."
Multiple stars have also started to say their goodbyes to the series, including Homelander star Antony Starr, who paid tribute to the show, honoring the cast, crew, creator Eric Kripke, and – of course – The Boys' wonderfully twisted fanbase.
"This complicated character allowed the space and range to discover and push boundaries in a way I never expected and I will always be grateful for this experience," Starr wrote via Instagram. "And of course huge gratitude to my co-parent with this twisted gem of a character [Eric Kripke]. We created a monster, sir. And I will miss him, and you. Til we roll out the last season. When I’ll see you. But this creative chapter is closed, and I’ll miss it, brother."
The Boys season 5 trailer
As mentioned above, the first teaser trailer for The Boys season 5 landed online on December 6. The clip jumps straight into the action, showing Karl Urban's Billy Butcher and the Boys now all free and reunited. As some time has passed since The Boys season 4, we can only assume that Hughie, Kimiko, Frenchie, and MM were able to break free of the Supes... though we'll have to sit tight to find out how they pulled that one off.
"We are dead men walking," Laz Alonso's MM says via voiceover, adding a surprisingly sinister tone to the proceedings.
We also get a sneak peek at Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) stepping out of his cryogenic tank, Homelander's superpowered son Ryan, and a dirt-covered The Deep, as well as first looks at Ackles' Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki and Hamilton's Daveed Diggs. The rest of the trailer sees Homelander drunk on power as he rules over the United States. After losing his last shred of humanity in season 4, the Supe looks to be hellbent on revenge as he pummels into somebody just out of frame. Whoever that is, they are surely dead by now.
Is The Boys season 5 the final season?
Yes, The Boys season 5 will be the final installment of the beloved superhero show.
Unfortunately, this decision is unlikely to change since The Boys' team has been clear on the series' due date for years now. During an interview with TV Line, showrunner Eric Kripke explained how they had decided that Season 5 would be the last entry all the way back when they were working on The Boys season 3. Kripke went on to share this season 5 news with his followers on X, posting a screenshot of the final page of The Boys season 4 episode 8’s script.
"Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season!" His caption read. "Always my plan; I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought."
#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. Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun! pic.twitter.com/3p7Wt4jGA6June 11, 2024
After The Boys season 5 wrapped filming, the cast went on to share their farewells to the show via social media posts. Starlight star Erin Moriarty took to Instagram, writing, "The tears have begun. The posts are incoming. I said goodbye to most of my work family today... to my Boys fam: love you, c*nts. forever."
Jack Quiad, who plays Hughie, said via his own Instagram post, "That’s a series wrap on Hughie Campbell... 5 seasons covered in blood & I wouldn’t change it for the world. Words truly can’t express how much this show means to me, but the only word that comes relatively close is 'family'."
The good news is that even if The Boys is over next season, The Boys universe is still thriving. In fact, Gen V season 2 was released in September, and a new The Boys spin-off (titled Vought Rising) set during the '50s was announced at SDCC 2024. So don't worry; there's still plenty for us to enjoy!
The Boys season 5 cast
We are still waiting for The Boys season 5 cast to be confirmed in full. However, after the events of the last episode of season 4 (read our The Boys season 4 episode 8 recap for more juicy details), we have some strong guesses on who will be returning to the series. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Claudia Doumit's character, Victoria Neuman, isn't likely to be making a comeback since she was ripped apart in season 4. We also know that Jeffrey Dean Morgan won’t be returning as Joe Kessler. Joe died off-screen during the 'Dirty Business' episode, and we are pretty sure there won’t be any surprise resurrections for him either. We may see a cameo from Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve, though, with Kripke having teased she'd return before the series end.
However, Jensen Ackles is returning as Soldier Boy in The Boys season 5. This big reveal came during SDCC 2024, and it seems like this comeback will show us more about his relationship and feelings toward his son, Homelander. Hopefully, their upcoming father-son talk will be a tad less destructive than their last one back in season 3, right? Eric Kripke confirmed that Ackles' return is all about digging deeper into that dynamic.
Thanks to that crossover-heavy Gen V season 2 finale, which saw Black Noir II kill Doug Brightbill (Hamish Linklater) before Annie officially introduced herself to the God U guys, we can expect to see a few cameos from the likes of Lizze Broadway, Asa Germann, Jaz Sinclair, and Giancarlo Esposito (who'll back as former Vought CEO Stan Edgar) too.
Familiar faces aside, it looks like there will be a bunch of new ones joining the series in its final installment, too. In October 2024, The Boys cast Stranger Things star Mason Dye in season 5 as a seemingly ageless Supe named Bombsight. Although we haven't met the Supe, he was mentioned in The Boys season 4. Elsewhere, Daveed Diggs is set to bring Oh-Father to life, a deeply religious Supe with ties to Homelander.
In February 2025, Ackles announced that his former Supernatural co-stars Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins would be joining the cast.
Read the full expected The Boys season 5 cast list below:
- Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell
- Karl Urban as Billy Butcher
- Erin Moriarty as Starlight/Annie
- Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk
- Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko
- Tomer Capone as Frenchie
- Antony Starr as Homelander
- Chace Crawford as The Deep
- Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
- Cameron Crovetti as Ryan
- Jim Beaver as Robert Singer
- Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
- Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir
- Valorie Curry as Firecracker
- Rosemarie DeWitt as Daphne Campbell
- Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve
- Susan Heyward as Sister Sage
- Mason Dye as Bombsight
- Giancarlo Esposito as Stan Edgar
- Jaz Sinclair as Marie
- London Thor/Derek Luh as Jordan
- Lizze Broadway as Emma
- Asa Germann as Sam
- Maddie Phillips as Cate
- Daveed Diggs as Oh-Father
- Jared Padalecki
- Misha Collins
The Boys season 5 plot
The official plot synopsis for The Boys season 5 from Prime Video reads, "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."
Despite Prime Video releasing a pretty chinky synopsis, it only tells us where we will find our favourite bands of Supes and civilians at the start of the series. So lets try and fill in the gaps. Although season 5 is set after Gen V season 2, it sounds as though the Boys are still reeling from the events of season 4's fiery finale. The season ended with Butcher going a bit off the rails and running off with the Supe-killing virus. However, even if the Boys don't trust Butcher, they still have Homelander to worry about.
Speaking of Homelander, we also know that Sage has some plan for the blonde Supe, as she's moving onto ‘Phase Two’ of her scheme that originally got Homelander close to the president. She already played a hand in getting Martial Law declared, so we're curious to see what her true end goal is in the upcoming season.
The Boys season 5 will also have to address the whereabouts of Homelander’s son Ryan, as well as A-Train. In the first teaser trailer, we can see that Ryan is now pretty comfortable using his powers, but the question still remains: whose side will he be on? There is also the seemingly pesky case of brainwashing that befell Frenchie in the last episode of The Boys season 4 that needs some clarification.
Oh yeah, and did we mention that The Boys season 4 post-credit scene also revealed that Soldier Boy had been cryogenically frozen? Thanks to the trailer, we know he's going to be unfrozen, presumably by Homelander. But the implications of that fact are still a mystery.
Here's where things get a little spoiler-y: Gen V season 2 episode 5 reveals the one and only threat to Homelander: Marie Moreau. Now that we know Marie is able to not only heal people, but quite literally bring them back from the dead – we also know that this makes her more powerful than Homelander, if not the most powerful supe in the entire world. In Gen V season 2 episode 1, Starlight reaches out to Marie and has her look into a secret project started by Thomas Godolkin, the scientist who created the most stable version of Compound V. We later learn that this means Starlight is well aware of Marie's regenerative capabilities, and that she is, in fact, the only entity in the entire world that can bring down Homelander. While the death of Homelander in season 5 was merely a hope... It now seems like a real possibility.
Furthermore, it sounds like season 5 will be a big bloodbath. Speaking to GamesRadar+ at SDCC, creator Eric Kripke also confirmed there was "no guarantee" that any of the returning cast would survive the final season "because you don’t have to keep [the cast] for another season." Homelander actor Antony Starr told Collider that although he hasn't "seen the penultimate and finale yet," he knows what happens. Starr added that he thinks "fans are gonna be either surprised or shocked, depending on their nervous system." So, should we buy the puke bags now or later?
"There are some things that are coming in season 5 that you’re not going to have in your bingo card," said Black Noir actor Nathan Mitchell in an interview with Deadline, Talking about his character, Mitchell added in a recent interview: "I think we learn more about him, and I think it's a fun ride."
Karl Urban also revealed we will finally learn the origin of Butcher's forehead scar. "Personally, I would actually love to keep that a bit enigmatic," said Urban during a appearance at MCM London. "But, season 5, you're going to find out the origin of Butcher's scar. That is one spoiler I will tell you – so I can't divulge it in this room, but you are going to find out!"
In a different public appearance, the actor also teased a major death in the very first episode of the new season. "I think we throw you in the deep end, but in a good way, because the stakes are as high as they can possibly be. I think the real thing to look out for in season 5 on an emotional level, as far as the characters go, and your attachments to characters, there's going to be some big hits early on in the very first episode. That's probably what is going to make you realize, 'Oh, this shit is for real.' The stakes couldn't be higher, and anybody's fair game."
While we wait for more The Boys season 5 news, check out our list of all the upcoming superhero movies heading our way. If you want more heroes, check out our guide on how to watch all the Marvel movies in order.
