‘The Boys’ Creator Says Show Is ‘More Realistic Than We Ever Intended’ Amid Trump-Pope Feud

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has developed a knack for mirroring the most surreal and turbulent facets of American politics. The show’s fourth season finale faced near-cancellation by Prime Video, as its depiction of an assassination attempt on the U.S. president mirrored a real-world tragedy at a political rally with unsettling proximity. In season 5, Kripke finds himself in a similar bind: Homelander’s latest narrative arc bears a striking resemblance to a controversial, AI-generated image shared by Donald Trump depicting himself in messianic light.

“I am genuinely exhausted by the world preempting our storytelling,” Kripke remarked during a recent video interview. “I’m grateful for the PR, but I’d really appreciate it if the world could wait for us to deliver our satire before proving it’s more grounded in reality than we ever intended.”

[Spoiler Alert: Plot details for The Boys season 5, episode 3 follow.]

In the third episode of the new season, titled “Every One of You Sons of Bitches,” Homelander experiences a haunting vision of the late Vought executive Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue). In this manifestation, she urges him to embrace his potential as an immortal deity, questioning, “Who is more loved than Jesus? And why should he have more love than you?”

While the writers believed they had pushed the boundaries of absurdity with this god-complex storyline, reality once again caught up with the fiction. “Homelander decides to claim divinity, and just 48 hours later, Trump shares an image of himself as a divine figure,” Kripke noted. “A month ago, we were worried this plot might be seen as ‘too much’ for the audience to swallow. It has become increasingly difficult to out-satirize current events.”

This vision propels Homelander into an aggressive crusade to forge a new national religion, aided by the opportunistic megachurch leader, Oh-Father (Daveed Diggs). The narrative is particularly sharp in its timing: while the real-world political landscape sees highly publicized clashes between political leaders and the Vatican, in the universe of The Boys, even the highest religious authorities are too terrified to challenge Homelander.

“I have great respect for the Pope,” Kripke clarified. “We strive to show that, fundamentally, faith can be a positive force. It’s when religion is weaponized and commodified to serve political agendas that it becomes deeply corrupted. I hope viewers grasp that the show itself isn’t anti-religious; it’s an indictment of how belief systems are exploited for power.”

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The first three episodes of The Boys season 5 are now available to stream on Prime Video.

 

Source: Polygon