Following weeks of fans making their opinions known on The Boys season 5 finale, showrunner Eric Kripke has come forward to say he has seen the backlash online, but he still stands by what he created.
"Obviously, there are a lot of unhappy people online," said Kripke in an interview with TVLine, "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."
Secondly, Kripke states that although he keeps up with what is being said, he knows that "the online world is not the real world," and that there are plenty of fans who don't use social media (or choose not to join the discourse) who feel differently. "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."
The main complaint the more vocal Boys fans have is that they were expecting a huge final battle between Butcher and Homelander backed by an army of Supes, as some of The Boys finale posters suggested. However, what we got was Homelander alone in the Oval Office as Billy Butcher and his Boys broke in to confront him. But Kripke says this was the plan all along, and that writing that finale episode was a "pretty smooth" process.
"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," said Kripke. "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?"
The final episode wrapped up each character's storyline pretty nicely, from Annie getting back at The Deep to Butcher's revenge tour finally coming to an end. We were even treated to a little epilogue, showing us what the Boys got up to after the smoke had cleared. You can read more about that in our The Boys season 5 ending explained.
The Boys season 5 is available to watch in full on Prime Video now. For more, check out our guides to best shows on Prime Video and all the other new TV shows you need to know about.
