Here’s everything we know about The Boys Season 4, from a possible release date to trailer, cast, plot, and other details.
Think about the state of pop culture in July 2019: we were a few months off the back of Avengers: Endgame, the biggest superhero movie event of all time; Far From Home dropped a whopper of a Spider-Man cliffhanger; and the DCEU was still caught in the Snyder Cut campaign.
Then came the first season of The Boys, a whole new breed of hard-edged, guts-and-lasers television that showed superheroes as egotistic, overzealous maniacs. It was renewed for a second season before its premiere, and as Amazon expected, was an instant smash-hit across the world.
Since then, it’s gone from strength to strength in audience viewership, and Season 3 may be the show’s best installment yet. Fortunately, there’s even more to come, so here’s what we know so far about The Boys Season 4, from release date details to cast, plot, and more.
Contents:
- The Boys Season 4 release date
- The Boys Season 4 trailer
- The Boys Season 4 cast
- The Boys Season 4 plot
- The Boys Season 3 recap
The Boys Season 4 release date: When is it coming out?
Unfortunately, we don’t have an official release date, but it’s likely The Boys Season 4 release date will arrive sometime in 2023, perhaps between June and September.
Its renewal was first reported by Deadline on June 10, 2022, a week after Season 3 hit Prime Video. In figures shared by the platform, The Boys’ global viewership has increased 17% from Season 1, and an incredible +234% from Season 2.
Had enough? Too f*ckin' bad, because we'll be back for SEASON 4. pic.twitter.com/6BtMTy1Wq1
— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) June 10, 2022
Vernon Sanders, head of global television at Amazon Studios, said: “From our first conversation with Eric Kripke and the creative team about Season 3 of The Boys, we knew the show was continuing to get even bolder – an impressive feat considering the wild success of the Emmy-nominated second season.”
Showrunner Eric Kripke added: “We’re thrilled to continue Butcher and The Boys’ fight against Homelander and The Seven, as well as comment on the insane world we’re living in. Also, this is the first time in history that exploding genitalia has led to further success.”
In a recent interview with Collider ahead of production kicking off on The Boys Season 4, Karl Urban said: “I’m getting back, getting my Butcher back on, and I can’t wait. It’s a fun gang to play with, we work hard and play hard, and I can’t wait to see where they take the characters from where we leave them at the end of this season.”
The Boys Season 4 trailer: Is there a trailer?
As of November 2022, there isn’t a trailer for The Boys Season 4 at the time of writing. We’ll update this space when it’s shared online.
The Boys Season 4 cast: Who’s returning, and are there any new characters?
Remember: when it comes to The Boys and deaths, all bets are off – however, with Season 3 complete, there’s a few faces we can expect to return in the Season 4 cast, including:
- Karl Urban as Butcher
- Jack Quaid as Hughie
- Laz Alonso as MM
- Tomer Capone as Frenchie
- Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko
- Erin Moriarty as Annie January/Starlight
- Antony Starr as Homelander
- Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
- Chace Crawford as The Deep
- Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw/Queen Maeve
- Jessie T. Usher as A-Train
- Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
- Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman
Nathan Mitchell’s Black Noir was killed off in the Season 3 finale, with Homelander ripping his insides out after he didn’t tell him about Soldier Boy. Maeve and Soldier Boy are both presumed dead to the public, when the latter is actually living off the grid with her partner, while the latter is locked away by the government.
Cameron Crovetti, who plays Homelander’s son Ryan, has been bumped up to a series regular for Season 4. We’ve also got some new additions with Valorie Curry’s Firecracker and Susan Heyward’s Sister Sage – neither of whom have any origins in the comics.
First look at Sister Sage & Firecracker in #TheBoys S4 pic.twitter.com/CVAze1TQYS
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) October 10, 2022
And, as per Deadline, The Boys is welcoming another Winchester to the mix: Jeffrey Dean Morgan has officially joined The Boys Season 4 cast as a recurring guest star.
In an interview with E! News, Kripke said: “Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a superfan of the show, so he and I are talking.
“We’re trying to figure out something for Season 4. Nothing finalized yet, but he and I are chatting and e-mailing and seeing if we can make it work with his busy schedule. So, stay tuned on that.”
Prime Video has also recently shared two new photos from the upcoming season of The Boys – showing off two new characters in their full suits. Susan Heyward’s Sister Sage and Valorie Curry’s Firecracker are both rocking their very own look. However, Prime is yet to give any more details on the characters. Be sure to check back here for any new updates on the cast and roster of characters.
Simon Pegg will return as Hugh Campbell Sr., after appearing in just five episodes of Season 1 before vanishing in Season 2 and re-appearing in the opener of Season 3.
He’ll be joined by Black Mirror star Rosemarie DeWitt as Hughie’s mother, a character who’s never been seen in the show so far. Supernatural’s Rob Benedict and Once Upon a Time’s Elliot Knight have also joined the cast in undisclosed roles.
The Boys Season 4 plot: What will it be about?
With Season 3 having just ended today, we can make certain predictions regarding Season 4, but there’s no official synopsis at the time of writing. We will update this article upon any release of an official synopsis or teases from Kripke and the cast.
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From the finale, it appears the tension between Soldier Boy and Homelander won’t escalate into another chapter, instead focusing on Homelander’s efforts to raise Ryan as a possible supervillain, while Butcher and The Boys focus on Victoria Neuman and, inevitably, Homelander.
The Boys Season 4: What happened in Season 3?
At the end of Season 2, it was revealed that Neuman was a supe who’d used her powers to explode a whole bunch of heads in Congress. Hughie started off the season working for her, hunting down supes the official way with the embittered help of Butcher, Frenchie and Kimiko.
Notably, the first episode featured the show’s most gruesome moment to date: Termite (essentially the show’s version of Ant-Man) crawls inside his boyfriend’s penis, sneezes, and causes him to burst open, leaving his entrails drooping off the bed onto the floor.
Maeve has been covertly helping Butcher behind Vought’s back and supplies him with temporary Compound V, granting him superpowers; specifically, laser vision and super-strength. She tells him to investigate the death of Soldier Boy and Payback, as it may lead to a weapon which can kill Homelander.
Upon learning that Neuman is a supe, who also betrays Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and hands control of Vought over to Homelander, Hughie returns to Butcher and the old team gets back together again for a job in Russia. There, they discover Soldier Boy alive and not-so-well, who lets off a massive radioactive blast that renders Kimiko powerless.
Oh, and Hughie takes Compound V and gains the ability to teleport. Starlight strongly disapproves and pleads with him to stop, but Hughie keeps taking it, putting their relationship up in the air for the time being.
Against MM’s wishes – who wants revenge for Soldier Boy killing his grandfather by hurling a car through his apartment – The Boys team up with Soldier Boy to help track down the ex-Payback supes who betrayed him. In exchange, he promises to kill Homelander.
Meanwhile, Homelander has been steadily going off the rails since the first episode. After Stormfront was outed as a Nazi, he starts in the middle of a public relations nightmare, which only spirals when Stormfront kills herself by biting her own tongue off just hours before his birthday special.
However, things take a turn for the better: Homelander uses the airtime of his festivities to go on a far-right rant, which sees his ratings go through the roof. There’s also the matter of Starlight, whose high ratings have led to her being forced into a fake relationship with Homelander, sickeningly dubbed “Homelight.”
In Episode 6, the show arrived at the hotly-anticipated Herogasm, a weekend-long orgy for superheroes. The NSFW stuff aside, it also becomes the site of one of the greatest superhero fights put to screen: Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Hughie vs. Homelander. Amazingly, Homelander loses, but he manages to make a quick escape.
In Episode 7, Starlight is laying low after targeting Homelander in a livestream, as well as publicly resigning from The Seven. She hesitantly helps Kimiko by getting her Compound V from the tower so she can get her powers back after Soldier Boy’s blast.
While Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Hughie hunt down Mindstorm, we learn more about Black Noir’s past. While serving in the Payback team, he suffered severe beatings and abuse from Soldier Boy, with other supes growing resentful of him.
During a mission in Nicaragua – conveyed to viewers via a cartoon flashback – we also discover that Stan Edgar gave Black Noir the order to kill Soldier Boy to make room for Homelander. During the ensuing brawl, Soldier Boy beat him so savagely that it left half his face melted and his skull burst into bits.
The last minutes pack the strongest punch, though: Soldier Boy calls Homelander and reveals he’s his Dad.
In the finale, Homelander visits Ryan and appeals to his loneliness, promising to always look after him. Meanwhile, Soldier Boy wrestles with his recent revelation, while Butcher tries to convince him to still kill Homelander.
Black Noir returns to Vought Tower and reconciles with Homelander, only for Homelander to rip his insides out soon after upon learning he knew about Soldier Boy all along.
Everyone converges at the tower, where a fight ensues between Butcher and Soldier Boy, after Soldier Boy tries to kill Ryan. This marks a brief alliance between Butcher and Homelander, although the latter supe gets stuck in a brawl with Maeve.
Meanwhile, Starlight joins The Boys after Butcher recovers from using temporary V – albeit, he’s informed he has less than a year-and-a-half to live.
As the episode is about to end, Homelander descends upon his supporters and introduces them to Ryan. When a Starlight fan shouts “fascist” at Homelander, he blasts his head off in front of everyone – and he’s met with cheers, putting a chilling smile across Ryan’s face.
The Boys Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now.
