Editor's Note: This post contains SPOILERS for the season 4 finale of The Boys.
The Boys is one of the few TV shows on right now that I think of as a satire first. From the start, it was always taking aim at Disney, at the superhero movie boom, at the rise in right-wing extremism, and increasingly at Donald Trump, who's been paralleled with the unstable Homelander since the start. There's a narrative that's emerged this season that The Boys has become "too political," and it baffles me. The show was always like this.
Because it's trying to stay on the cutting edge of the news, sometimes The Boys gets ahead of itself. To wit: over the weekend, former President Donald Trump was shot by a would-be assassin at a rally in Pennsylvania; the bullet hit his ear, barely missing his head, and he's okay. This act of political violence has understandably been taken very seriously, which put The Boys in something of a bind, since the season 4 finale featured a storyline where Homelander and his circle of conspirators try to assassinate the fictional President Singer.
Singer does not die in the episode, but it's still touchy to run a presidential assassination plot so soon after an actual attempted presidential assassination. To that end, they retitled the episode from "Assassination Run" (oof) to "Season 4 Finale" and added a "viewer discretion advised" warning at the top of the hour. They also released this statement on their Instagram:
"The season finale of The Boys contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump. The Boys is a fictitious series that was filmed in 2023, and any scene or plotline similarities to these real-world events are coincidental and unintentional. Amazon, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of The Boys reject, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind."
In the finale, Homelander became the de facto president of the United States, and he intends to employ his army of superheroes to sweep in a new, oppressive regime. Depending on what happens in the real world between now and when Amazon airs the fifth and final season, something tells me there will still be plenty of parallels to draw. Further content warnings aren't out of the question.
Rainbows and butterflies ahead. #TheBoysFinale pic.twitter.com/e9R3okR6o7
— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) July 18, 2024
That new poster bears some resemblance to an image from The Boys comics by Garth Ennis:
There's a very good chance we'll see this shot from the comics next season on The Boys pic.twitter.com/YXIVi6EiPV
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) July 18, 2024
We don't know when that final season will air, but I'd expect a two-year wait. If Amazon wants to prove me wrong and air the final episodes in 2025, I'll be happy and impressed.
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