Posted in: Amazon Studios, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: amazon, jeffrey dean morgan, Karl Urban, prime video, season 4, the boys

The Boys S04 Poster: Deadly Serious Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Karl Urban

Karl Urban's Butcher & Jeffrey Dean Morgan's mystery character are two peas in a diabolical pod in this key art poster for The Boys Season 4.

While there is a whole lot to get excited about when it comes to the fourth season of Prime Video and Showrunner Eric Kripke's The Boys, it's the role that Jeffrey Dean Morgan (AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City) will be playing in Butcher's (Karl Urban) life now that Butcher knows that his time on this earth is on the clock – and counting down fast. While Morgan and Kripke remain on spoiler lockdown, Kripke shared with EW how the role was "perfect" for Morgan and that he gives Butcher (Karl Urban) someone siding with his way of thinking. In fact, their bond is so important that the duo has earned their own character profile key art poster – waiting for you below.

"Once the character that he plays came up, we said, 'Oh! That would be perfect for Jeff.' He was always going to play that character if he was able to swing it," Kripke shared – and if you're getting the impression like we did that Morgan's character might be the angel/devil on Butcher's shoulder telling him he's doing the right thing, it doesn't sound like we're far off. "I can tell you that he shares a lot of Butcher's concern and hatred of superheroes," Kripke shares about Butcher's "old colleague" (as Kripke describes him).  "It really came from the notion of everyone else in The Boys is always trying to pull Butcher back. So what would happen if he started working with someone who wants to push him forward?" As for Morgan, it sounds like he found a nice fit with the role he's playing – especially in terms of who he gets to share the screen with. "I knew who my scenes would be with, whom I f***ing love," Morgan explained. "Karl [Urban] is a better looking, better acting version of me, but we're the same f***ing motherf***er. To work with that is so much fun."

The Boys Season 4: Eric Kripke on Sister Sage, Firecracker Insights

During an interview with EW, Kripke shared that Susan Heyward's Sister Sage and Valorie Curry's Firecracker represent the show's twisted take on two more superhero archetypes – "The World's Smartest Person" and "All-American! USA!" When it comes to Sage, Kripke notes that being "a tactical genius" will see her having Homelander's ear – making The Seven leader "much more dangerous." As for Firecracker, Kripke notes that the gun-loving supe sits somewhere to the far right of even VNN's Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison) – and that she definitely has very similar traits to Donald Trump's potential VP pick, Kristi Noem. Here's a look at what else Kripke had to share about Sister Sage and Firecracker:

Kripke on Sister Sage: "It's such a funny power. A lot of superhero worlds have that character. Whereas most of them are usually really reedy white dudes, we wanted a Black woman who was raised in a low socioeconomic area, so no one f***ing listens to her. It's both commentary and satirical that you have literally the smartest person in the world that could cure all of society's ills, but she just can't get anyone to listen to her. So then she becomes a bitter misanthrope."

Kripke on Firecracker: "It turns out there's always crazier. Firecracker represents both members of the conspiracy-minded movements and the super extreme right-wing news media. That character has some surprising backstory that connects her to some of the characters in our world that it was just interesting to bring in one of those pistol-packing 'I shot my puppies' type of characters."

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 is 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.

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 (Karl Urban), Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Soldier Boy (Jensen 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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