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The Boys: Eric Kripke Explains Why You Can't Have Season 4 Quite Yet

Even though production wrapped earlier this week, The Boys Showrunner/EP Eric Kripke explains why you can't have Season 4 quite yet...

Earlier this week, The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke made it official: "As of today, #TheBoys #Season4 is completely, totally, absolutely DONE. I'm really grateful & so proud of this cast & crew. Could be our best yet. Can't wait to unleash it onto the world. Coming June 13 on [Prime Video]." Great news, right? Of course! And yet, some folks are wondering why, if the season was finished in early April, they have to wait until June for it to hit Prime Video screens. Thankfully, Kripke was able to shed some serious light on what happens after the season has locked – basically, it needs to be ready for the world. "For everyone asking why we can't release it right away: now Amazon needs to dub the show in dozens of languages, different countries need different formats, on and on," Kripke shared in a social media post earlier today. "It's what happens when you drop the show globally at once." From the marketing team's perspective, that also gives them more time to get the word out about the season – because you're never too big not to benefit from a little extra (positive) publicity.

Here's a look at Kripke's post from earlier today clarifying where things stand with Season 4 between now and June:

Here's the official logline for the fourth season that was previously released: "In Season Four, the world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander (Antony Starr), who is consolidating his power. Butcher (Karl Urban), with only months to live, has lost Becca's son and his job as The Boys' leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it's too late." Joining the cast for the second season are Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

The Boys Showrunner/EP Eric Kripke Discusses Season 4 & Beyond

In a previous interview during the early stages of work on the fourth season, Kripke covered a ton of topics in his interview with Variety (check out the complete interview with a ton of other details here), with highlights focused on Butcher (Urban), Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Soldier Boy (Ackles), and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell):

So Should We Be Expecting Ryan to Go "Brightburn"? "Ryan is a really important piece of the story because he's half Becca, half Homelander. If Butcher can figure out how to get his shit together and get the kid back, that could be the single best weapon they have against Homelander. But vice versa. If Homelander wins the kid over, that's apocalyptic because then there's two Homelanders. It's like a child drama with apocalyptic stakes. It's like 'Kramer vs. Kramer' meets 'Avengers: Endgame.' So that will be a really rich story moving forward."

How Will Butcher React to Knowing He's on a "Crazy Ticking Clock"? "He's got so much to do that he hasn't done. And everything that he's tried to do up to this point has exploded in the most horrible way. What we find fascinating about the question we're asking about Butcher is, is he self-aware enough to realize that he's causing his own misfortune? Is he self-aware enough to actually see if he can change? Those are some of the interesting conversations we're starting to have for Season 4."

Maeve's Leaving Will Make Things Tougher for Starlight… at Least Until She Returns? "I don't think 'The Boys' will end without Maeve showing up again… We needed a way to sort of gracefully get Maeve out of the show, let her head for the exit. Obviously, we didn't want to kill her and fall into the tropes of gay characters and bisexual characters in shows getting killed. We wanted to do the opposite of that and send her off and give her a happy ending with Elena. The best way to do that was, well, take away her powers, and she's not useful in the fight anymore. And we did that because Annie can't really grow into her own until all the characters that are around to protect her are gone. It was important for her next step for her mentor characters and her protector characters to go away. And so it's only up to Annie. There's no one left but Annie. So what is she going to do?"

Black Noir Is Dead! Long Live Black Noir! "Without spoiling anything, I will just say this: When you have a silent character in a mask, he's reasonably easy to recast… If you notice in the flashbacks of this season, it was a different actor [Fritzy-Klevans Destine], and perhaps the reason we did that is so that if we were to recast Noir, we could recast him with Nathan [Mitchell, the original Black Noir actor].

Just Because Soldier Boy's on Ice Doesn't Mean He Can't Return… Right? "The old TV adage is like, never kill anyone unless you really, really have to. Never close a door, open a window. We'll all have to wait and see, but I can't imagine the series ending without Soldier Boy making another appearance."

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