‘His Time Is Running Out’: The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke Hints Billy Butcher’s Death in Season 4

With the Superhero fever seeing no end, The Boys series is also becoming one of the hottest properties in the Superhero scene. The series clocked in at 919 million minutes watched in the U.S. according to Nielsen streaming rankings, right behind Stranger Things.

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The Boys
Members of Seven before the death of Stormfront.

The series stars Karl Urban as fan-favorite Billy Butcher and Antony Starr as the egomaniacal Homelander, who are at each other’s throats. The series is known to subvert the superhero genre with satire and parody.

Related: ‘Shared Universe is F*cking Hard’: The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke Reveals Despite Show’s Overwhelming Success, He Needs Kevin Feige’s Help to Create MCU Inspired ‘VCU’

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*Spoilers ahead*

Finale with The Boys

At the end of season 3, to the surprise of all the fans Homelander temporarily teams up with Billy Butcher, when Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy threatens to kill Ryan. The end also saw Queen Maeve lose her powers and Soldier Boy sent back to his coffin.

The Boys
Billy Butcher and Queen Maeve in Season 3

In the last few minutes of the show, Ryan is introduced to Homelander’s radicalized fans, contrary to the end of the previous season where Ryan chooses Billy Butcher over Homelander. Much to the horror of the fans, right after Homelander blows up a protester’s head, Ryan smiles as the screen snaps to black.

Also read: ‘I don’t think there’s a redemption story’: Antony Starr Reveals His Wildly Unhinged Conclusion for Homelander in The Boys TV Show

Billy Butcher’s fate

One of the twists that have the fans on edge is the fate of Billy Butcher. In the end, the Supe killer was diagnosed with cancer and was set on a timer of 1 year to his death. Commenting on the future of Billy Butcher to Collider, showrunner Eric Kripke stated:

“That guy has a very, very driven set of goals that on his best day he was obsessed with, to an incredibly unhealthy degree. Now that he feels that his time is running out, and he might only have one more swing at this, my guess is that pushes him so far further down the road towards immorality because he’s feeling his mortality.”

Read more: Supernatural Gets Parodied By The Boys With Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy

The Boys
The Boys villain Homelander played by Antony Starr.

It seems far more likely that ‘The Boys’ leader won’t live past season 4. Furthermore, since Billy Butcher’s adopted son has also chosen to side with Homelander, things are only gonna get harder for him. Stating how the show is about family, Eric Kripke said:

“Both Butcher and Homelander have very good reasons to fight over Ryan, because the stakes could not be higher. If Ryan goes Homelander’s way and then there’s two Homelanders in the world, then that’s a nightmare for the planet. If Butcher can get Ryan into the light, then that’s probably actually the best weapon they have against Homelander.”

You may also like: ‘It’s definitely not the last we’ve seen of him’: Eric Kripke Reveals How Black Noir Will Return For The Boys Season 4

The last episode of The Boys premiered on July 8th, with all of the episodes available on Amazon Prime Video.

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Written by Nikhil Makwana

Nikhil Makwana is a writer for FandomWire, with interests in DC comics, anime, indie films, independent films, and Nicolas Cage. He’s pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in BBA,LLB from IFIM Law School. When he’s not writing, he reads books such as the classic Dune series and existential essays from Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.

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