Womp, Womp: Karl Urban Teases a Long Wait for ‘The Boys’ Season 5

After a truly diabolical season 4 finale that might’ve hit a little too close to home, fans are already wondering when the final chapter of The Boys will arrive on Prime Video. Until then, it looks like we’ll have to look to Billy Butcher actor Karl Urban, who recently offered an update on the status of season 5.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for all episodes of The Boys season 4.

From the get-go, we’ve known The Boys was unlikely to end with its fourth season, which just finished its run on Prime Video this week. Luckily, showrunner Eric Kripke took to social media back in June to share the happy news that his hit superhero satire was green-lit for another season, but with a disheartening twist: season 5 will also be its last. On X, Kripke joked, “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.”

And just like that, The Boys season 4 has come and gone. The action-packed gorefest of a finale, originally titled “Assassination Run” before being reworked to “Season 4 Finale,” depicted everything from a presidential assassination (welp) to Hughie (Jack Quaid) proposing to a Shifter impersonating Starlight (Erin Moriarty), before leaving us on one of the most brutal cliffhangers in franchise history. With Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) dead and President-elect Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) in prison, this paves the way for Speaker of the House Calhoun (David Andrews) to take charge, and he just so happens to be a staunch pro-Supe advocate. In his words, “America will be safe again.” Sure about that?

So while the fates of Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) remain up in the air, it sounds like we’ll just have to wait for the crew to try again next season…if it’s not too late for Butcher, that is. But with Homelander (Antony Starr) now leading a federally sanctioned Supe army and The Boys being captured by familiar faces from Gen V, things are about to get a whole lot tricker—and that’s saying the least.

What’s next for The Boys? Everything we know about season 5 so far

Let’s break down the numbers here: The Boys’ first season landed on Prime Video in July 2019, with season 2 following a little over a year later in September 2020. Then, because of a little-known virus, season 3 premiered a pandemic later in June 2022. Taking last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes into account, production on season 4 also took a little longer than expected, with the most recent batch of episodes arriving in June 2024. Its spinoff series, Gen V, also debuted in September 2023.

All things considered, The Boys has a pretty quick turnaround time. Writing, principal photography, editing, CGI, and reshoots seem to take creators roughly a year to complete, but Kirpke has hinted that production on season 5 might take a bit longer to ensure that the show really goes out with a bang. Speaking with Deadline, Kriple explained, “Usually from about when you start the writers room, and we started like about a month ago, five weeks ago, to when generally you hit the air, it’s about two years and change,” hinting that we can expect the new batch of episodes to roll out in mid-2026. Arughhhhh.

Although nothing’s been outright confirmed by Prime Video, release date included, Kripke also told Variety in June that while it’s “not totally locked in yet,” his team hopes to start shooting around mid-November, adding, “I don’t know when it’ll premiere yet, but we’ll be shooting well into middle of ’25.”

On Instagram, Urban seemed to back this up, writing in a commemorative post for the season 4 finale, “See you in…2 years (wish it was sooner) for the final season.” I wish it was sooner too, TBH, but thankfully, it sounds like Kripke and Co. are well into pre-production on The Boys season 5.

Sex fetishes (RIP Webweaver), Frenchie x Kamiko, Supe Ashley (Colby Minifie), and most importantly, the return of Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy … The Boys has a lot of loose ends to tie up in its final season. Plus, is Firecracker (Valorie Curry) like, good? Does she need a glass of milk or something?

For now, we only wonder how it’s all going to play out in the end, but if the graphic novel is anything to go by, the team is going to have to make even more sacrifices if they ever hope to defeat Homelander. Either way, blood, guts, and gore surely await—in the meantime, we’ll just have to be patient.