Prime Video canceled Gen V in April after two seasons, but Eric Kripke says he is not done with the young heroes of Godolkin University. In a virtual interview, the The Boys creator said there is more story among the Gen V kids and that he wants to find a way to keep them in the franchise.
“I think there is more story among the Gen V kids,” Kripke said. “It won't necessarily be in Gen V, but hopefully we can get some more Vought series going so that we can continue their story.”
That matters now because Gen V season 2 ended on a cliffhanger that tied directly into The Boys season 5, leaving the fate of Marie Moreau and the rest of the cast hanging just as the parent series heads into its final season. Starlight had recruited the young heroes to join her resistance to Homelander, and several of the characters have already crossed over with cameos on The Boys.
Kripke said the canceled spinoff still has room to keep paying off that setup. “It has a season-wide story that has a satisfying ending, but then it definitely opens a door into a new adventure and a new world, and we would love to keep it going,” he said. “That is up to the powers that be.”
The cancellation does not appear to have altered his broader plans. Kripke said his next spinoff, Vought Rising, has already been written, and that Gen V’s end will not change what he is trying to do next. He said, “My feeling is, why would I play it safe and why would I prepare for failure?” and added, “I don't think this is a business right where you can play it safe.”
Kripke also said he would be stunned if anyone in real power saw The Boys as a real threat, despite the show’s skewering of corporate and political power. “I would be stunned if anyone in any real position of power looks at our whale-exploding prehensile-penis show and feels that there's any legitimate threat,” he said. “We haven't gotten any pushback, but we're also so ridiculous.”
That irreverence, he said, may be part of why the franchise has kept moving. “We're court jesters with an especially stupid hat,” he said. “I think maybe because of that, we eke on by.” He also said a lot of the show’s edge started as a joke about how bad Vought is.
There is still a larger business question hanging over all of it. Kripke said superhero fatigue is real, and he said the end of The Boys and Gen V arrives as Hollywood executives and audiences are seemingly feeling it too. “If you look back over the history of popular media, there have been phases,” he said, comparing the moment to earlier cycles that eventually cooled off. He also said AI can be a problem, though it still cannot write something that feels unmistakably human.
For now, the most important unanswered question is not whether the franchise has more life, but whether Marie Moreau and the other Gen V characters will get the payoff their season 2 ending set up. Kripke sounds convinced the story is there. What remains unknown is whether the next chapter will carry the Gen V name or simply move those characters into another corner of the Vought universe.
