Eric Kripke Feels “Pressure” To Deliver Fresh Content Each Season of ‘The Boys’: “I feel incredible pressure”

The Boys remains one of the world’s most popular superhero series. Season four, which began airing on June 13, 2024, is nearing its highly anticipated finale. The season has garnered high ratings and is Certified Fresh, with Amazon reporting increased viewership.

However, some fans are review-bombing the season due to its heightened political undertones. Despite this, the creators remain unfazed, as each episode escalates with even more satire than before.

Given this, showrunner Eric Kripke, known for his candidness about the series’ production and development, has shared background details ahead of the season finale and the upcoming final season.

Kripke recently had a discussion with Amazon Prime Video, addressing questions about the show, the current season’s production, and his sentiments as the series approaches its conclusion. Here are his insights:

Now that The Boys is four seasons in, and its signature drama, comedy, and even violence have been established for audiences, do you feel any pressure to give them what they’re coming for?

Eric Kripke: I feel incredible pressure about giving audiences something new [in each season of The Boys]. Whenever any showrunner knows what their show is, it’s time to stop making that show. They have to be a surprising and evolving thing. That’s always scary because every season, you’re hanging on by your fingernails, wondering if it’s going to work, and you barely manage to pull it off. Then, you reward yourself by throwing all of that out the window and trying something totally new again next season.

It’s always a high-wire act, but I think that’s what you need. Shows become boring and stagnant when they start following the same pattern over and over again. You have to keep reaching for the new! Even as writers and actors, if we’re not doing that, then what are we doing? We’re just chasing a paycheck at that point. So, you really have to keep pushing into surprising places.

When it comes to building a series of this scale, when should it be finally time to bring it to an end? Is it about beating the bad guy? Is it about the state of the world? Or, is it feeling like the characters have changed in the way that the beginning sets up? 

Eric Kripke: Yeah, without necessarily knowing when the show should end. I was so wrong with Supernatural, I could not have been more wrong in history about how long a show should go. Moreover, I should have stopped trying to predict how long [The Boys] should go. But I will say that the big meta storyline of the series is these two forces of Homelander and Billy Butcher coming toward each other.

Like these two meteors, two planets. Whatever the ending is, it has to heavily involve finally bringing that to a head with whatever disruption that entails. There are obviously other shows in this universe. There are obviously other corners of the universe to explore. However, this particular story is about Homelander and Butcher crashing into each other.

Source: Discussing Film

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