Why The Boys Series Finale Changed Butcher & Homelander's Fates From The Comics

The article contains major spoilers for The Boys series finale, “Blood and Bone.”The Boys officially ended its run after five seasons, but not without a few comic changes.

The Boy series finale concluded the ongoing conflict between Homelander (Antony Starr) and key members of the titular group, especially the vengeful Billy Butcher (Karl Urban). While relatively keeping elements from Garth Ennis’ comics, there are a few tweaks to Homelander and Butcher’s fates.

Despite Homelander possessing V1 and trying to become a god-like dictator, The Boys were finally able to topple the powerful Supe. With Kimiko removing his invincible powers with a newly inherited Soldier Boy-inspired blast, the longtime antagonist became powerless, and despite begging for mercy, Butcher finally ended his life by striking his head with a crowbar.

However, Homelander’s death is a stark contrast to what happened in the original comics. Black Noir was revealed to be a Homelander clone who committed most of the atrocities, and as a result, the real version instigates a supe rebellion against the government. Although the last fight takes place in the White House, Black Noir kills Homelander, and then Butcher eliminates the antagonistic clone.

While speaking with Collider, showrunner Eric Kripke acknowledged this tweak to the battle between Homelander and Butcher. Despite being a redeemable moment for Homelander in the comics, the creator thought that “that just was never satisfying to me to have followed Antony Starr for all these seasons, and then at the very end to find out that he actually didn’t do any of the things that he thought he did; it was actually Noir, who was his clone. So, I was never gonna do that version.“

There are some similarities in the Homelander-Butcher of it all, at least in terms of, we’re trying to nod to it, of the setting in the Oval Office, or using the crowbar as the final kill. But, and I’ve said this in interviews before, the comic ends with it turns out that Homelander isn’t the villain at all. He was tricked into being the villain. The real villain was Black Noir all along. People love it, and mileage varies, but that just was never satisfying to me to have followed Antony Starr for all these seasons, and then at the very end to find out that he actually didn’t do any of the things that he thought he did; it was actually Noir, who was his clone. So, I was never gonna do that version.

The chances of that ending were slim anyway, given Black Noir’s (Nathan Mitchell) fate leading up to season 5. Homelander killed the original version in the season 3 finale before hiring a new version, Justin, who acted in his place for the Seven. Unfortunately, even Black Noir II didn’t make it to the series finale, as The Deep (Chace Crawford) eliminated him in episode 6, following a feud.

Meanwhile, Butcher’s death follows the comics closely, but even the original ending was much darker. While comic Butcher also aims to kill supes with the virus, the rest of the team tries to stop him from committing such genocide. In this struggle, Butcher shockingly kills Mother’s Milk, Frenchie, and Kimiko, leaving Hughie (Jack Quaid) as the lone survivor. Following a tussle at the Empire State Building, Hughie eventually kills Butcher, just like in the series.

While the series finale followed a similar scenario, Kripke also clarified to TheWrap why Butcher didn’t slaughter the majority of his teammates. The showrunner felt that “Hughie being the only survivor felt wrong” before elaborating that “It just shows how they’re different mediums, and when you have a TV show you make a pact to the viewers with these characters that you know you’re not just going to arbitrarily murder people they love, so we were never going to go there.”

“We knew that we did not want to have Butcher murder all of the Boys. Hughie being the only survivor felt wrong to us. It just shows how they’re different mediums, and when you have a TV show you make a pact to the viewers with these characters that you know you’re not just going to arbitrarily murder people they love, so we were never going to go there.”

Ultimately, Kimiko and MM are among the characters to survive The Boys series finale, while Hughie and Annie (Erin Moriarty) resume their relationship with a baby on the way. Thus, they end up with a happy ending in contrast to the tragedy in the comics. Despite several original characters still alive, it’s unclear if anyone will return in any potential spinoffs.

Meanwhile, Prime Video will continue the universe with a prequel series Vought Rising, which is set in the 1950s. Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash reprise their roles as Soldier Boy and Stormfront (or Lady Liberty at the time). While Kripke has previously confirmed a 2027 window, an exact release date has yet to be confirmed.

All five seasons of The Boys are streaming on Prime Video.