Warning: There are spoilers ahead for The Boys series finale.Gen V season 3 is canceled, but Eric Kripke now reveals what the overarching story would have been.
The news of the spinoff’s cancellation came in the midst of The Boys season 5 releasing new episodes. Some of Gen V‘s characters do appear in the final season of the franchise’s main series, including Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Jordan Li (London Thor), and Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), but they ultimately play small roles and their stories remained unfinished.
In an interview with Variety for The Boys series finale, Kripke was asked if there were any story threads that would be explored in the franchise’s future. The Boys creator and showrunner explained that Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) being reinstated as Vought CEO and having the corporation now reject supes would’ve been at the center of Gen V season 3, with the former Godolkin University students dealing with the fallout of these actions. Check out Kripke’s comments below:
Had we done more Gen V, we were very clearly signaling in the finale that the torch was being passed from Annie to Marie for the good supe you’re following. I would love to find a way to continue that story. We’re in the very embryonic stage of seeing if there are any ideas that we’re really loving. It’s like all these loose nukes. You have Stan Edgar basically disavowing relationships with superheroes, and so these people who have been coddled and protected this whole time are now suddenly out in the wild. Who tries to be Jessica Jones, and who tries to be a super villain? It leads to some really fascinating places that I would love to see, and the hope was we were going to put the Gen V kids in the middle of all that. But hopefully we still will, and we can bring some of those characters into some of these stories that we’re talking about.
Without giving the specifics away, yes, Gen V Season 3. The plot challenges they would have had to deal with were almost this metaphor of being a young adult, which is like you’re out in the world and there’s no infrastructure or jobs anymore. How do you build a future for yourself, and how do you deal with certain superheroes who are just choosing to be villains?
Gen V season 2 ended with the death of Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater), and now that Vought has disavowed supes, the college would not have continued. Per Kripke’s remarks, the spinoff would instead have explored Marie and her friends navigating the real world, which is no longer designed for them or what they had been preparing for throughout most of their lives.
Instead, they would have been left to pick up the pieces of the mess that the Boys left behind after finally defeating Homelander (Antony Starr). This would have seen them helping supes who need guidance or are using their powers for good, while having to stop those who are using their new circumstances to become villains.
Confirmation of what Edgar’s role would have been in season 3 is also intriguing because he shares history with Marie and her peers. In Gen V season 2, he chooses to help them, including giving them more insight into Project Odessa, as they had common enemies at the time. Now that Edgar is back in control of Vought and has publicly taken an anti-supe stance, he likely would’ve become a prominent antagonist again, potentially even wanting to eliminate those he once helped.
After Gen V season 2 focused a great deal on Marie’s unparalleled powers, including her ability to resurrect the dead, season 3 definitely would have explored this further as well. The Boys season 5 does not spend any time on Marie using her powers, with her appearances being more about her relationship with Starlight/Annie January (Erin Moriarty) and the mantle of leadership being passed to the next generation. It would have been a unique time to put her powers to the test with so many supes running amok after being thrown out by Vought.
Given what Kripke says about other spinoffs being “in a very embryonic stage,” there is a possibility that some of the Gen V characters and storylines could work their way into other expansions of the franchise. The Boys: Mexico spinoff has already been in development for a few years now, and Kripke has shared that it will take place after the series finale of the main show. This provides another avenue for the Gen V characters and storylines to resurface.
For now, though, the only confirmed extension of the franchise is the spinoff series Vought Rising, which dives into the corporation’s origins and the beginnings of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), Clara Vought/Stormfront (Aya Cash), and the other supes who were injected with V1. Since it is a prequel set in the 1950s, it is not promising for any Gen V elements to show up there, unless the series ends up partly being as a stealth sequel following Soldier Boy after The Boys series finale.
All episodes of The Boys and Gen V are now streaming on Prime Video.
- Release Date
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September 28, 2023
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Michele Fazekas
- Directors
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Nelson Cragg, Clare Kilner, Philip Sgriccia, Sanaa Hamri, Shana Stein, Steve Boyum
- Writers
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Craig Rosenberg
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Lizze Broadway
Emma Meyer / Little Cricket