The Boys S04 Filming This August; Kripke Talks Homelander/Soldier Boy

Okay, it’s hard to believe it but we’re now less than a week away until the Season 3 finale of Amazon and showrunner Eric Kripke‘s The Boys. Yeah, I know. It does feel like it premiered only two weeks ago (maybe consider dropping only two eps when the fourth season kicks off?). So while we await the promo for the season-ender to drop, we’ve got two interesting updates to pass along. The first comes from Karl Urban, who offered a very exciting update on Season 4 during an interview with Collider in support of his animated Netflix film, The Sea Beast. Following that, Kripke speaks with Variety about when the decision came about to work in that big Homelander (Antony Starr) and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) reveal, and what that means for the season finale.

“The Boys” Season 4 Begins Filming… This August?! “Yeah, we’re starting I think August the 22nd, we’re going to be starting season four. So 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.”- Urban

But Don’t Ask Urban for Details…: “We’re about two months away from filming, and I have no idea. So that’ll tell you something, but yeah, not too far away. I mean, I expect that we’ll… I’m actually going to be seeing [Eric] Kripke next week and I expect conversations will start to happen about what he’s got in store. I like to give them the respect of being able to do their writing process and not be harassed by actors going, ‘What are we doing?’ But I can’t wait. They always come up with insane stuff, so yeah, it’s going to be fun.”- Urban

Kripke on Why the Homelander/Soldier Boy Connection Made Sense for the Season: “There’s the obvious [reason], which is Soldier Boy was like the first Homelander. So there’s a certain logic that he is the father of the current Homelander. But it was more about really slowing down and paying attention to the themes of the season as they were evolving. And really, in so many ways, this season is about fathers and sons. It’s about how fathers can pass their trauma, generationally, to their children, especially this toxic masculinity of policing that their boys have to be society’s version of masculine.

There’s all of these themes that are all floating around and it all kind of lands in these father-to-son stories. We talk about Hughie and his dad, Butcher and his dad, Butcher and his son, Homelander and his son. It wasn’t the very first plan from the beginning, but as we were just talking through the mythology of the season, someone pitched it and said, ‘Crazy pitch, but what if…?’ And I jumped all over it. I’m like, of course, because many of our main characters are dealing with issues of their parents and parenting — Mother’s Milk, also — Homelander should have to deal with his dad. So it all fell together.”- Kripke

On How This Revelation Impacts the Season Finale: “The awkwardness of that realization gets played out more in Episode 8. We see that struggle that, not just Soldier Boy, but Homelander is having with that bomb-drop of information. Basically, Soldier Boy has some hard choices to figure out. He’s promised Butcher that he would help him and the tables are turned.”

In an interview with Variety, Vernon Sanders, Amazon Studios Head of Global Television, discussed how things are looking with The Boys universe expanding:

“The Boys: Diabolical” Season 2? “There is absolutely the possibility. We were excited when we launched. We thought there was a two-fold opportunity with ‘Diabolical.’ One was to get ‘The Boys’ fans excited about and get it out early. But we also wanted to see if there was another bite of the apple once the mothership show returned, and we are seeing real engagement and growth of the show there. We’ve definitely had conversations with the producers about what the next installment would look like.”

Untitled College-Based Spinoff? “We are thrilled, the dailies look great, we are excited about the cast that we have. It absolutely has ‘The Boys,’ it’s part of the show, but I think the other thing we are excited about, it’s different in its own way. It’s definitely been a long road. I have to admit, when Eric Kripke came to talk to us about the spinoff, we were so excited about the potential of it, we told him we wanted it two years earlier than he said he could get it done. Eric has been great and brought great showrunners as well.”

More Spinoffs? “There’s ideas beyond the shows that we have. We want to pace ourselves. The launch of the show this season so far has really blown us away, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard about more but for the time being, we are focused on this next show and making sure that it lives up to everything it needs to be, and so far, we are on track.”