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The Boys season 4 ends things in a scary place, with Homelander essentially gaining control over the White House. Homelander’s supe army has kidnapped dissidents like The Boys and any other humans or supes who are against his agenda. Homelander’s control over the United States is terrifying, but he may not be the scariest villain in the final season. WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for The Boys comics!
If Billy Butcher Is Really The Boys’ Final Villain, It Will Be Controversial
One popular The Boys season 5 theory is that the show will do a fairly accurate adaptation of the comic book series’ ending. In the comics, Billy Butcher becomes the main villain of the show. The Boys learn that Butcher has ambitions to commit a genocide of supes, so they decide to stop him. Butcher kills MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko, with his final fight being against Hughie. Luckily, Hughie gets the upper hand and kills Butcher.
Black Noir isn’t a Homelander clone in the Prime series, so Homelander’s death will have to be changed significantly. However, some fans are theorizing that Butcher will kill Homelander before The Boys finale, leaving Butcher’s battle with Hughie and the rest of the heroes for the finale. Although The Boys has been building up to a final confrontation with Homelander this entire time, this theory states that it will pull the rug out from under fans by switching things up and concluding with a final confrontation with Butcher.
Obviously, this would be incredibly divisive. Butcher has been going down a dark path in recent seasons of The Boys. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to have genocidal tendencies when it comes to supes. After all, he was in favor of using the supe virus that would kill basically every supe on Earth. However, the TV show’s Butcher is much more likable than the version from the comics, so having him go full villain in the finale could turn some viewers off.
On top of that, killing Homelander off too early could make The Boys finale feel a bit anticlimactic. After taking out Homelander, the fight between humans seems much smaller-scale. While it would be interesting emotionally, it would be weird to have the main characters achieve their goal before the climax, only for the climax to be a different battle entirely.
Having Butcher die while fighting Homelander due to his hatred of supes driving him to madness would be fine. This seems like it still gets at what The Boys comic series was going for without taking things nearly as far. However, if The Boys TV show takes that extra step and makes Butcher a full-on villain, it could be a step too far for some.
