If you’re already jonesing for another fix of The Boys now that the spinoff series Gen V just wrapped Season 2, you’re in luck. Prime Video just dropped the first teaser trailer for The Boys Season 5 at CCXP Brazil. In the process, we’ve gotten our first glimpse of a new world order where Antony Starr’s Homelander truly reigns supreme.
As any good teaser should, this footage raises more questions than it answers about the new season. So while we wait for the May 2026 premiere, let’s break down the biggest burning questions surrounding the fifth and final season of The Boys.
Is the Team Really United This Time?
Season 4 ended on a particularly dark note for our heroes. Now that the new US President has pledged loyalty to Homelander, Vought’s superhuman figurehead is effectively in charge of the most powerful nation on Earth. Most of the team has been captured by Vought and thrown into one of the company’s “Freedom Camps.” Erin Moriarty’s Starlight is now a fugitive, left to mount a desperate resistance on her own. And, as ever, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher remains the wild card. He’s got a deadly array of new powers and a willingness to use every weapon at his disposal to finally bring down Homelander.
The teaser makes it clear that this is basically the status quo heading into the new season. However, it also doesn’t dance around the fact that it’s only going to be a matter of time before Starlight rescues her comrades and the team gets back together. Even Butcher is hooking up with his old friends again, despite Season 4’s ending making it seem like he was going to be a chaotic free agent.
The question is how long this unity can actually last. The show has always focused a great deal on the tension between Butcher and his teammates. He’s willing to go to extremes they won’t in the name of punishing Vought. That certainly seems to be the case with Season 5, as we know Butcher is preparing to unleash a Thomas Godolkin-designed supe-killing virus on the world. How long until the team fractures again?
It’s an especially pointed question in the final season of the series, given how the comic ended. We won’t get into spoilers here, but as much as Homelander is the main antagonist of both versions, the comic really comes down to the rivalry between Butcher and Hughie in the end. Can this team stop Vought and Homelander and still retain their souls in the process? Or is Butcher’s way now a necessity in this dark new era?
Where Are the Gen V Characters?
Gen V Season 2 certainly wrapped with a major twist, as Jaz Sinclair’s Marie Moreau and her Godolkin University classmates wound up meeting with Starlight and Jesse L. Usher’s A-Train and joining their fledgling resistance movement. It’s unclear whether Gen V has a future on Prime Video, but it is safe to say that these characters have a part to play in the final season of The Boys.
Unfortunately, the teaser doesn’t give us any indication of what their roles might be. Marie and her friends are completely MIA in this footage. Does that mean we should expect them to play more of a supporting role in Season 5? Or is Kripke simply keeping his cards close to the vest?
“They’re trying to mount a real push, but they’re also outgunned, outmanned,” Kripke told THR. “You’re in an entire country that has drunk Homelander’s Kool-Aid. They’re outmatched by the size of the hundreds of superheroes that are in every town across the country, who have been given authority over the police. So it really is a true underground resistance against a fascist government, which definitely has no comparison or parallel to anything going on anywhere in the world.”
We do expect Marie herself to be an important figure in Season 5, as she’s effectively the best weapon the resistance has against Vought. She may be the only person on Earth besides Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy with the power to kill Homelander. One way or another, we suspect that power will be put to the test.
Who Is Jared Padalecki Playing?
Supernatural fans are in for a real treat in Season 5, as Kripke has orchestrated a full-fledged reunion of the beloved horror series. Not only is Ackles reprising his role as Soldier Boy, but the other Winchester brother, Jared Padalecki, is joining the cast. And if that weren’t enough, Misha Collins is also joining the series at some point in Season 5.
Unfortunately, we still don’t know the identity of Padalecki’s character after watching the teaser. We only see him appear in a single shot alongside Soldier Boy and Homelander, suggesting he’s playing a villain. So who is he? What connection does he have to this fearsome superhero family? Is he once again playing the brother of Ackles’ character, or someone else entirely?
And what about Collins’ character? We don’t see him at all in the new teaser. We can only hope the show contrives some way of getting all three actors together on-screen for at least one scene.
Vought Rising – First Look Images from The Boys Prequel Series
What’s Sister Sage Up to Now?
Susan Heyward’s Sister Sage has easily been one of the best additions to The Boys universe in recent years. She’s the smartest woman in the world, and we saw proof of that in Season 4 when she managed to orchestrate Homelander’s rise to the top of the political food chain. For Sage, it was nothing more than an intellectual exercise to break up an existence dominated by boredom.
Sage also wound up playing a significant role in Gen V Season 2, where she similarly helped Ethan Slater’s Thomas Godolkin manipulate his way back to full health. In that case, Sage was motivated by more personal desires, as she and Godolkin were lovers. But, ultimately, Sage was forced to help sabotage Godolkin’s plan after it became clear he wasn’t content to simply enjoy his newfound freedom.
So what motivates Sage now? What does she want? How does she fit into Homelander’s regime? Is it possible that she regrets the chaos she helped wreak and will start working against Homelander? Or is she fully on board? If the latter, she might well be the most dangerous enemy Annie and her team have to face in Season 5.
Who Is Homelander Punching?
The Season 5 teaser trailer is dominated by a recurring scene of Homelander viciously, methodically punching an enemy. That raises the obvious question: Who is he punching? Our first thought would be Butcher, but let’s not forget just how ridiculously strong Homelander is. For any opponent to withstand multiple blows, they would have to be very strong themselves. Do Butcher’s new powers extend far enough to withstand that?
There are certainly other options. Homelander could be fighting dear old dad, beating Soldier Boy to a bloody pulp. It could be another of his superhero “allies,” as Homelander is definitely mercurial at the best of times. All we can say for sure is that he seems to be particularly invested in this one-sided battle. We can’t wait until Season 5 drops so we can find out who the unlucky person is on the receiving end of Homelander’s mighty fist.
The Boys Season 2 will premiere on Prime Video on April 8, 2026, culminating in the series finale on May 20.
There’s more to come from The Boys universe after Season 5 ends, of course. While Gen V Season 3 remains up in the air, the prequel spinoff Vought Rising is confirmed. That’s said to explore the early days of The Boys’ nefarious mega corporation, Vought International. And then there’s The Boys: Mexico, executive produced by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal and written by Blue Beetle scribe Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
