"I'm Sorry If I Disappointed You": The Boys Series Finale Audience Backlash Addressed By Creator

After five seasons, The Boys came to an end last month on Prime Video, and now creator/showrunner Eric Kripke is speaking out about viewers who took issue with the series finale.

During an interview with TVLine, Kripke revealed that even though he's "sorry if I disappointed you," referring to disappointed fans, at the end of the day, what they saw on their screens every week was the "story I wanted to tell."

He also acknowledged that social media isn't indicative of the real world and tends to amplify the most negative comments. The Boys has "way north of 60 million viewers," so the online backlash is merely "a fraction of a single percentage point."

"We have way north of 60 million viewers, so that makes the online storm, which feels very all-encompassing, actually a fraction of a single percentage point. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, of course, and I'm sorry if I disappointed you, but it was the story I wanted to tell. You just have to put it into perspective of it being a reasonably small, vocal audience when the vast majority seem to be happily tuning in."

While he admits it's not healthy to consume that much social media discourse, especially when a lot of it is negative, Kripke still pored over the online reactions to The Boys series finale.

"My job is to make people passionate about the work I put out," the showrunner explained. Even if a lot of it revolves around "arguing about it and hating it and fighting, that's all passion."

Kripke believes his job is to get an "emotional reaction" out of people, regardless of whether it's positive, negative or somewhere in between. He's not here to "dictate what that emotional reaction is," but he's glad that there have been such passionate reactions to his show.

"I'm not healthy in that I'm like, 'Oh, I never look.' I see it all. Obviously, there are a lot of unhappy people online, but there are two things I would say: First, I'm just glad people are passionate, legitimately. My job is to make people passionate about the work I put out. If they're arguing about it and hating it and fighting, that's all passion, man. You're watching, and that's all good. My job is to get an emotional reaction, not necessarily to dictate what that emotional reaction is...The online world is not the real world."

Before the writers' room focused its attention on the series finale script, Kripke and his team had already mapped out the entire plot at the very start of the pre-production process for season 5, including the fate of every character. As a result, the writing process itself wasn't a struggle.

However, the "hardest part was structuring the script so that, as we're heading into the inner sanctum of the Oval Office, every character gets a moment to be cool...we made sure every hero had their moment."

"We had figured out who was going to live and die and when it was all going to happen. So by the time it came to actually writing and figuring out the episode, we basically had everything already set. The hardest part was structuring the script so that, as we're heading into the inner sanctum of the Oval Office, every character gets a moment to be cool. They all deserve a moment to be cool, right? Everything from Ashley's moment, to Huey having one last flash of genius with his understanding of electronics and equipment, to the ball gag, to Annie and The Deep, we made sure every hero had their moment."

The Boys series finale featured the characters invading the White House, which kicks off several shocking moments, including the deaths of The Deep, Homelander and Billy Butcher, and Ashley Barrett's removal from office.

The Boys has always received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, with each season's Rotten Tomatoes score ranging from 85% to 98%. Critics were still raving about the gritty superhero series in its final season, giving it a 93%.

Viewers have had a much different trajectory. The first three seasons earned audience scores of 90%, 83% and 72%, respectively. The final two seasons, however, saw the show's popularity plummet to 53% and 50%, respectively, a stark contrast with critics.

Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comic books, The Boys has leaned into politics throughout its run, even going so far as to include storylines that were clearly inspired by real-world events in the United States, which garnered criticism at the time from people in certain political circles.

The show also experienced at least a couple of situations during the final season when a major political scandal would happen in real life that veered very closely to certain plot points on The Boys, even though the scripts were written and filmed months ago.

The series starred Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Colby Minifie, Aya Cash, Jensen Ackles, Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry and Daveed Diggs.

The Boys may be over, but the franchise isn't ending anytime soon. Kripke is currently an executive producer on Vought Rising, an upcoming spinoff about Soldier Boy and Stormfront. Filming ended in March, and Prime Video is expected to launch the series sometime in 2027.

Release Date 2019 - 2026-00-00

Showrunner Eric Kripke

Writers Eric Kripke

Franchise(s) The Boys