The series finale of The Boys recently hit our screens, and oh boy, it wasn’t exactly a smooth wrap-up. Some fans are basking in glory over how this bloody superhero satire tied up its loose ends, while others are ready to picket in fury, grumbling that the finale’s more akin to Game of Thrones drama than the mastery of Breaking Bad. It’s like the astrological clashes of opinions brewing under this month’s Mercury retrograde—how will the stars align for creator Eric Kripke’s take on all the uproar?
The series finale of The Boys aired just a few weeks ago, and let’s just say the reaction wasn’t exactly a victory lap. While plenty of fans were happy with how the blood-soaked superhero satire wrapped things up, others were far less forgiving, with the backlash putting it closer to Game of Thrones territory than Breaking Bad. So, what does series creator Eric Kripke make of all the noise?
“Obviously there are a lot of unhappy people online, but there are two things I would say: First, I’m just glad people are passionate, legitimately. My job is to make people passionate about the work I put out,” Kripke told TVLine. “If they’re arguing about it and hating it and fighting, that’s all passion, man. You’re watching, and that’s all good. My job is to get an emotional reaction, not necessarily to dictate what that emotional reaction is.“
Kripke added that he’s learned the online world isn’t the real world. “We have way north of 60 million viewers, so that makes the online storm, which feels very all-encompassing, actually a fraction of a single percentage point,” he explained. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, of course, and I’m sorry if I disappointed you, but it was the story I wanted to tell. You just have to put it into perspective of it being a reasonably small, vocal audience when the vast majority seem to be happily tuning in.“
It’s a shame that The Boys didn’t end in a way that made everyone happy, but it seems that Kripke stuck to his guns to tell the story he wanted, for better or worse.
Although The Boys may be over, the franchise isn’t done yet. A prequel series, Vought Rising, will premiere in 2027. It’s been described as a “twisted murder mystery” set in the 1950s, featuring the return of Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy.
Kripke has said Vought Rising has “definitely got some Boys DNA in that it’s irreverent and graphic. But it has this sort of lovely, almost noir-like murder mystery. There are detectives and twists, and there’s a murder that then opens up into a bigger conspiracy. We’re also trying to do a very gritty version of the ’50s. Most people’s feeling or sense memory of the ’50s is from movies, which are very sanitized. Even L.A. Confidential, as much as I love it, is visually a pretty clean movie. We wanted dirty and grimy. There would be heroin dens and gay bars and this underbelly of popular culture at the time. So to explore all that is a blast, as well.“
How do you feel about the series finale of The Boys?
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