The Boys season 4 premiered on Prime Video on June 13, 2024, with Billy Butcher dying, Homelander gaining ground and Senator Victoria Neuman edging toward the Oval Office.
Updated October 28, 2026.
Superhero stories usually ask you to trust whoever has the power. The Boys asks you to do the opposite. Eric Kripke developed it for Prime Video from the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and the series premiered on July 26, 2019. Its running idea is that people given strength and no accountability behave like the worst version of the rest of us. Vought International, the corporation that sells its superpowered “Supes” to the public as heroes, is the machine that makes it possible. Each season the stakes get higher, and the story builds toward a fight over the soul of the country. That is the lens for every character below: what they do when nobody can stop them.
Standing against Vought and the Seven is a rag-tag group of regular people, led by the rude and angry Billy Butcher. They call themselves The Boys. Next to the power on the other side, their cheeky jokes and quick tricks can look like a weak match, but their grit has kept them going through plenty of ugly setbacks. At its core, the show is more of a dark comedy with a lot of tragedy in it. It is about what people will do, and how far they will go, when they have huge power and no one to answer to. These Supes level city blocks, pop heads and zap protesters with lasers without much worry. Under the capes, they are a lot like the people they look down on, with the same petty worries, the same squabbles and the same grudges. What is scary is that they can act on those small feelings in the most violent ways. Anyone who has known a boss who gets worse the more power they get will recognize the idea. If you have ever tried to jump into a long-running show halfway through, you also know how lost you can feel, so here is a quick catch-up on where everyone stands as season 4 begins.
In season 4, two sides have formed over how humans and Supes will live together. On one side is Homelander, a preening narcissist with Superman-like powers who thinks Supes are close to gods, and says so. On the other, more humane side is Starlight, who now works with The Boys. She imagines a world where Supes and humans get along. Then there is the wild card, Senator Victoria Neuman, the “Head Popper,” who hides her powers and is expected to be the next vice president. Later in the season, she turns out to have a virus that can target and kill only Supes. For another big TV world to catch up on, try our House of the Dragon season 2 primer.
Homelander going into The Boys season 4
Homelander is played by Antony Starr, and season 3 left him stronger and more exposed. In episode 7, Soldier Boy tells him he is his biological father, according to Wikipedia’s season 3 page. Soldier Boy then tries to kill him and fails.
The finale is the scene to remember. At a rally, a protester throws a can at Homelander’s son, Ryan. Homelander kills the man with his laser vision. The crowd cheers, and Ryan smiles. Americans are now split on him: some see a tyrant, others a savior, and that split is the engine of season 4. Anyone who has watched a crowd flip from shock to cheering in a few seconds knows how fast that can happen.
Starlight
Annie January, who performs as Starlight and is played by Erin Moriarty, joins the Seven in the first episode of season 1. She meets Hughie by chance in Central Park in that same episode. By the end of season 3 she is Homelander’s chief antagonist, and the change from nervous newcomer is the show’s longest arc. She was once co-leader of the Seven, Vought’s chosen hero team.
Wikipedia’s season 3 page records that she publicly condemns Vought and the Seven, leaves the team and joins The Boys. Homelander has threatened to kill her and Hughie more than once, so her skepticism about Vought is earned. She quit the Seven because she was fed up with how Vought kept Homelander happy. She now shares the group’s goal of taking Vought apart, and she hopes for a world where Supes and humans can live side by side.
Senator Victoria Neuman in The Boys season 4
Neuman is the most discreet character in the cast and arguably the most explosive. Claudia Doumit plays a senator who hides her superpower: she can burst people’s heads. Fans call her the Head Popper, and her trick has already caused chaos at congressional hearings. What she wants is still a mystery. Most of us have met someone whose real goals we could never quite pin down, and that is what makes her so unsettling.
In season 3, presidential candidate Robert Singer picks her as his running mate after The Deep murders her rival. Her motives stay murky. At times she has helped Vought, and at times she has wrecked its plans. She also injected her daughter with Compound V. Season 4 opens with her closer than ever to the Oval Office and under Homelander’s control, per Wikipedia’s season 4 page.
Billy Butcher in The Boys season 4
Karl Urban plays the ringleader of The Boys, and he is as vicious as the man he hunts. He is hellbent on wiping out Supes and will go almost anywhere to do it. His hatred of Supes started with Homelander. In season 1, episode 6, Butcher tells Hughie that Homelander raped his wife, Becca. Later episodes reveal she had a son by Homelander. That son is Ryan, and Ryan is one of Butcher’s few soft spots.
The others are Hughie, whom he treats like a little brother, and the crew he underrates, which includes Mother’s Milk, Frenchie and even Kimiko. In season 3 he takes V24, a Compound V variant that gives temporary powers, and it leaves him terminally ill. Season 4 begins with him having only months to live. The Boys have dropped him as leader, and he is seeing hallucinations of Becca and of Joe Kessler. Will he finish off Homelander before he dies? That is the question hanging over the season.
Hughie
You can argue that Hughie, played by Jack Quaid, is the real protagonist. The series opens on a New York sidewalk with him and his girlfriend, Robin. A-Train, a speedster hooked on Compound V, runs straight through her and kills her. Hughie’s grief puts him on the road to The Boys. He joins the fight to curb the Supes’ power.
He then falls for Starlight, the newest member of the Seven, and spends the series torn between two loyalties. In season 3 he takes V24 alongside Butcher to go after Homelander, and their attempts fall short. The aggression V24 brought out in him humbled him. He is still part of the team, and he helped Starlight get accepted into the group. He has since gone back to being the compassionate one.
Mother’s Milk
Laz Alonso plays Marvin T. Milk, known as Mother’s Milk, and he is the moral center of the group. His vendetta against Soldier Boy comes from Soldier Boy killing members of his family, per Wikipedia’s season 3 page. Even so, he rarely loses sight of the bigger picture. Everyone needs one friend who stays calm when the rest of the room is yelling, and he is that friend.
Soldier Boy now sits in stasis, so Milk’s goal is partly met. With Butcher’s death looming, someone has to lead. Mother’s Milk is the logical successor. In the season 4 finale, Calhoun shows Homelander where Soldier Boy is being held, which keeps that storyline open.
Frenchie
Serge, called Frenchie and played by Tomer Capone, is Butcher’s recruit and the group’s jack-of-all-trades. He is resourceful and good at finding the weak spots that Supes hide. Like Mother’s Milk, he has a checkered past, and some of it involves people he helped kill.
In some ways he gets a piece of his humanity back through Kimiko. In season 1, episode 4, he frees her from a Triad hideout. Their bond drives some of the show’s most emotional scenes, because each keeps propping up the other.
Kimiko
Karen Fukuhara plays Kimiko, a superhuman who was kidnapped by the terrorist group Shining Light Liberation Army, a fact the show reveals in season 1, episode 6. She is a ferocious fighter and the group’s closest thing to a hired gun, able to handle many of its smaller jobs fast. She was found locked in a cage in season 1.
She is lukewarm toward Butcher and fully loyal to Frenchie. Paired with Starlight, she makes a duo that nobody wants to cross.
What happened after The Boys season 4 premiered
Season 4 ran eight episodes, from June 13 to July 18, 2024. Along the way Homelander recruits Sister Sage and Firecracker joins the Seven. The Boys work with the CIA to try to assassinate Neuman, and her virus that kills Supes appears in episode 5.
The series has since ended. Showrunner Eric Kripke announced in 2024 that season 5 would be the last, and its eight episodes aired from April 8 to May 20, 2026.
The Boys season 4 FAQ
When did The Boys season 4 premiere?
Season 4 premiered on Prime Video on June 13, 2024, with the first three episodes released together. The remaining episodes followed weekly, and the eighth and final episode of the season aired on July 18, 2024, according to Wikipedia’s season 4 page.
Do I need to watch earlier seasons before The Boys season 4?
Yes. Season 4 picks up directly from season 3, including Butcher’s illness, Soldier Boy and Starlight’s break with the Seven. Season 3 holds a 98% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating from 155 reviews, per Wikipedia, so it is the season most worth rewatching first.
How was The Boys season 4 reviewed?
Wikipedia’s season 4 page lists a 92% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating based on 142 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.65 out of 10. It also lists a Metacritic weighted average of 76 out of 100.
Is there a season 5 of The Boys?
Yes, and it is the final season. Its eight episodes aired from April 8 to May 20, 2026. Wikipedia lists a 93% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating based on 111 critic reviews for season 5.
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