The Boys Season 4: Everything we know

The Boys Season 4 is set to be the craziest chapter yet – so, here’s what we know, from any release date and trailer updates to cast, plot, and more.

Reflect on the state of popular culture in July 2019: Avengers: Endgame had recently made history as the biggest superhero movie of all time; Spider-Man: Far From Home left audiences on the edge of their seats with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger; and the DCEU was still embroiled in the Snyder Cut debacle.

It was then that The Boys premiered its inaugural season, introducing a new class of gritty, cynical, and gory TV that portrayed superheroes as narcissistic, fanatical lunatics. The show was granted a second season before even airing its first episode, and as anticipated by Amazon, it quickly gained global acclaim.

Since its debut, The Boys has consistently grown its audience and the third season might be its finest chapter yet. Fortunately for fans, the story is far from over. Here is everything we’ve learned so far about The Boys Season 4, including information on the cast, plot specifics, and more.

Contents

• Does The Boys Season 4 have a release date?
• The Boys Season 4 trailer
• The Boys Season 4 cast
• The Boys Season 4 plot
• The Boys Season 3 recap

Does The Boys Season 4 have a release date?

Unfortunately, Season 4 of The Boys doesn’t have an official release date yet, but we’ll likely get one soon, as filming officially wrapped in mid-April 2023.

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 an 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 May 2023, there isn’t a trailer for The Boys Season 4. However, a fake campaign announcement has been released to tease the upcoming plot of Season 4, which you can watch below:

It’s a dark day for America. But together, we can keep an innocent hero #HomeFree. Here’s CEO Ashley Barrett with more on Homelander. pic.twitter.com/vaJNk56Iy5

— Vought International (@VoughtIntl) June 14, 2023

The video features Vought CEO Ashley Barrett, who states that Homelander is now on trial due to him murdering a protesting civilian at the very end of last season. She proclaims his innocence, making a satirical joke at the American legal system, and implores viewers to tweet #HomeFree, which will no doubt be a way to drum up hype for Season 4.

We’ll update this space when a full trailer is shared online. In the meantime, check out the Season 3 bloopers for some giggles:

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
• Chace Crawford as The Deep
• Dominique McElligott as Maggie Shaw/Queen Maeve
• Jessie T. Usher as A-Train
• Cameron Crovetti as Ryan
• Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett
• Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman

We’re also expecting Jensen Ackles to make a return as Soldier Boy. Kripke previously told Entertainment Tonight: “The old TV adage is like, never kill anyone unless you really, really have to. Never close a door, open a window. We’ll all have to wait and see, but I can’t imagine the series ending without Soldier Boy making another appearance.”

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 former 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

— ScreenTime (@screentime) 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 shared two 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. As per The Boys’ official Twitter page, Sage is “already a thousand steps ahead of you,” while “Firecracker has a short fuse.”

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?

Although there’s no official synopsis at the time of writing. But Kripke previously teased what to expect the focus to be, telling Collider: “Moving forward, Ryan is a really important part of it. Both Butcher and Homelander have very good reasons to fight over Ryan, because the stakes could not be higher.

“If Ryan goes Homelander’s way and then there’s two Homelanders in the world, then that’s a nightmare for the planet. If Butcher can get Ryan into the light, then that’s probably actually the best weapon they have against Homelander. It’s always been a show about family, and so much of Season 3 was about fathers, so I think it makes sense that Season 4 is about sons.”

As seen in the teaser video we posted earlier, it seems like in Season 4 Homelander will be on trial due to him murdering a protesting civilian at the very end of Season 3. However, he could be freed without punishment, and he is still the Captain of the Seven.

Homelander’s Starr promised things are going to get even weirder in the next chapter. Speaking to Variety, he said the superhero show “somehow gets weirder and weirder and weirder,” adding that he was shooting one scene for Season 4 where “I was looking at the person I was opposite, and I said, ‘What are we doing? I can’t believe this! I could have done anything else with my life, but here I am doing this?’ It was truly the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done.”

In a recent interview with Collider, Pegg teased: “You know how crazy The Boys is? It’s gonna get crazier. I had so much fun on that show. It was so great to go back and play Hugh Sr. I love Jack [Quaid]. It was great to work with Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Hughie’s mom, who comes back. It’s going to be great. You’re gonna love it.

“I’m in about four episodes, and it was a joy to be back. It’s a great crew. They are an amazing bunch of people, and that show is sick as fuck!”

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 sex 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.