- The boysThe creator responded to complaints about its fifth and final season.
- Some fans have reacted negatively to what they describe as “filler episodes”.
- Eric Kripke says people are ‘watching the wrong show’ if they’re unhappy with the story’s progression
The boysThe showrunner has defended the plot of its fifth and final season amid growing complaints from fans that it is full of “filler episodes.”
Speaking to TV Guide, Eric Kripke suggested that some viewers were “watching the wrong show” if they shared this opinion, and/or thought the Prime Video show’s last hurray would include “a huge battle scene.” [in] every episode.”
Kripke’s comments follow growing fan frustration regarding The boys season 5. Indeed, since its debut in early April, part of its fan base has reacted negatively to the pace of the plot, the introduction of new superfluous characters into the story then killed shortly after their arrival and the tedious adult humor.
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Such reactions littered discussions on the ResetEra forums, The boys‘ Reddit page – including in its Season 5 Episode 6 post-discussion thread – and other social media platforms, such as X/Twitter, since the return of the Amazon TV Original. And, although these individuals represent only a small portion of the series’ global audience, it’s their comments on each chapter that Kripke sees first.
With the satirical superhero franchise’s main series set to end after its next two episodes, it’s no surprise that a clearly frustrated Kripke chose to respond to those aggrieved by the way The boysThe final season is happening – and he’s not holding back on his criticism of their criticism.
Full spoilers immediately follow for The boys season 5, up to and including episode 6.
two episodes of the finale and homelander have already had V1, no trace of Marie and her team, Deep is still alive, and they rewrote the character of Soldier Boy… #theboys #theboyss5 pic.twitter.com/gxHtCRKfIgMay 6, 2026
“None of the things that happen in the final episodes are going to matter if you don’t flesh out the characters,” Kripke responded when asked about the aforementioned fan hostility.
“I get a lot of criticism online, to put it politely, and I’m like, ‘What do you expect? Do you expect a huge battle scene every episode?’ First of all, I can’t afford it. And secondly, it would be so empty and boring, and it would just be moving shapes without any importance. »
“It was important, for example, to really understand where Firecracker was,” he said of Supe, a far-right group, before his disappearance in Episode 5. “It was important to evolve the relationship between Soldier Boy and Homelander and to hear how desperate MM (Mother’s Milk) feels in Episode 4. It was important to see that. The boys fracture between the people who rally around Butcher and those who rally around Hughie.
“At no point during writing did I think, ‘Oh yeah, we’re doing filler episodes. So who cares?’ We all thought at the time that we were actually getting these important character details. We have something like 14 characters, maybe 15. And I owe it to all of them – to the extent that television is about characters – I owe it to all of them to flesh them out and humanize them and their stories.
“It’s just a giant character move sometimes,” Kripke added. “But, apparently, just because it’s not a conspiracy, you’re like, ‘Nothing happened!’ I say to myself: “Nothing happened, what? The craziest and biggest moves have happened. He just wasn’t someone who was shooting at someone else and going: bench, bench, bench. And if that’s what you want, you’re just watching the wrong show.”
Before the interview ended, Kripke also shared his thoughts on why he thought some fans thought Season 5 had largely spun its wheels over its first six episodes.
“Another thing I’ll say that’s interesting is that maybe that’s the case – you can tell I’ve thought about this a lot, because I’m not obsessively online looking at people being mad at me, you are! – but I think it might be a byproduct of being out weekly,” he mused.
“As much as I like the weekly release – because we should take the time for people to talk and argue about the show – I suppose if you watched it on repeat or watched it all at once, you would have a very different experience than watching one episode a week that you might find slow or slower than usual, and then you have to wait another whole week for the next bit. I think that probably infuriates people.
“To be clear, I’m a supporter of this release schedule,” he said before adding, “But I was wondering if that was one of the side effects.”
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