The end is coming for The Boys. Prime Video’s diabolical superhero drama is concluding with its fifth season, and it’s going to take a miracle, or some very extreme measures, for the Boys to take down Homelander once and for all before he becomes immortal.
So far, Hughie (Jack Quaid) and his friends have taken plenty of Ls across the show’s four seasons. But nothing that came before was as messed up as the events of the Season 4 finale — when their former leader, Butcher (Karl Urban), turned against the rest of the Boys and introduced a shocking set of new powers. In the final moments of Season 4, the Boys were also separated by force. We don’t know who exactly was behind their capture, but one thing’s for sure: Their list of enemies just grew longer.
Based on the comic series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys has gained much praise for subverting tropes in the superhero genre. It has also continued to provide sharp commentary on today’s political landscape, with each season’s plot growing increasingly closer to reality (or is reality growing closer to The Boys?).
Here’s everything we know so far about The Boys Season 5, from its cast to when the series is coming back.
ALSO READ: The Boys Season 4 review: Prime Video’s blunt superhero satire is losing its punch
The Boys Season 5 latest news
A month ahead of the final season premiere, Prime Video dropped one last big trailer to set the stage for the final season. Check it out below.
When is The Boys Season 5 coming out?
On Dec. 5, Prime Video announced at The Boys‘ CCXP panel that Season 5 is premiering April 8, 2026. Two episodes are dropping on that date, followed by a new episode each week. The series finale is releasing May 20, 2026.
The Boys Season 5 teasers and trailers
Amazon dropped the final trailer for Season 5 a month before the premiere, and it establishes the stakes pretty clearly: Homelander wants to get his hand on the original V-One formula from Gen V Season 2, which everyone believes will make him functionally immortal, and Butcher wants to use the supe-killing virus from Gen V Season 1 to permanently end the supe threat — even though it would also kill Butcher himself. This new trailer is also a little less serious than the previous teaser, so it’s probably a little bit better representation of what to expect in terms of vibe.
There was a lot going in the previous teaser for The Boys Season 5, too, which dropped in December: Butcher rallying the boys one last time, a first look at Jared Padalecki’s unnamed character (who else is excited for this Supernatural reunion?), and Homelander (Antony Starr) brutally — and repeatedly — punching someone. Fans are already speculating that his son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) is the one receiving these punches, which we’re eager to find out.
The Boys Season 5 cast
The Boys family is getting bigger — and more supernatural. On Feb. 26, Prime Video announced through a social media video that Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins are set to make guest appearances in Season 5. This is obviously huge news for Supernatural fans, as Prime Video also confirmed that the pair will be sharing scenes with fellow Supernatural alum Jensen Ackles, who was previously confirmed to return as Soldier Boy. At the moment, no details about Padalecki and Collins’ roles have been shared.
Deadline reported in July 2024 that Ackles will be a series regular in the upcoming season. While his character barely appeared in Season 4, Soldier Boy was a major part of The Boys‘s third season and gave the Boys some hope in their goal of defeating Homelander.
Prime Video announced in October 2024 that Mason Dye (Stranger Things) has been cast as Bombsight in The Boys Season 5. “More details, you ask?” The Boys posted on X. “Ya know better by now.”
Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) will also be joining The Boys Season 5. Details about his role are being kept under wraps. “He’ll be playing a character in the show,” The Boys wrote on X. “That’s all ya get for now.”
New S5 crumbs… let’s all welcome Daveed Diggs to The Boys family, shall we? He’ll be playing a character in the show. That’s all ya get for now. pic.twitter.com/rgEf740UNN
— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) September 24, 2024
Here’s who else we’re expecting in The Boys Season 5:
ALSO READ: The Boys‘ Colby Minifie pitched this idea for Ashley’s power in Season 5
The Boys Season 4 ending
So much happened in The Boys Season 4 finale. To start, we bid adieu to a major character: Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit). Just when the vice president-elect was about to align with the Boys, she was brutally murdered by Butcher. TV Guide asked Doumit about her reaction to the character’s end. We also spoke with the cast and Kripke about other major scenes in The Boys Season 4 finale, which you can watch in the video below.
“We really wanted to shake it up,” Kripke said about the ending. “The one thing we really didn’t want was the season to end with a kind of status quo.”
How does The Boys Season 5 connect to Gen V?
Showrunner Eric Kripke has confirmed that characters from Gen V, The Boys‘s college-set spin-off, are going to appear in The Boys Season 5. This is teased in the finale of Gen V Season 2, where series protagonist Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and her friends Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh), Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips), and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann), as well as Marie’s sister, Annabeth (Keeya King), are welcomed into “the resistance” by Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher).
“There will be some crossover with The Boys Season 5,” Kripke told TV Guide at Gen V Season 2’s premiere. “As you see by the way [Gen V Season 2] ends, a rebellion is growing of which Starlight’s in charge of in many ways. And so we keep playing that story throughout [The Boys] Season 5 that there’s an underground and there’s a resistance, and the Gen V kids are a part of that resistance.”
But Kripke also wanted to manage expectations from viewers who have watched both shows. “I don’t want to over-promise the Gen V kids, it’s more of, like, crossover cameos,” he added. “But they’re for sure a part of it.”
So while the Gen V kids may not get a ton of screen time in Season 5, a couple of the season’s main plot devices come from Gen V. Both the supe-killing virus that was developed in the Godolkin University basement during Gen V Season 1, and the ultra-powerful V-One serum that grants immortality, will be major factors in The Boys Season 5. The V-One serum is, in fact, Homelander’s endgame goal, since it would probably turn him into an immortal god and possibly allow him to rule the world forever.
Where to watch Seasons 1 through 4 of The Boys
Seasons 1-4 of The Boys are available to watch on Prime Video.