The Boys Finale Axes a Fan Favorite — Fans Demand Answers

We are one episode away from The Boys wrapping it all up, and the fandom is already on fire. Not because of what happened, but because of what apparently won’t: no Soldier Boy in the series finale. That detail came out ahead of the last episode, and it has people on X melting down, tossing around Game of Thrones- endgame comparisons like confetti.

What set everyone off

Series creator Eric Kripke talked to Collider and explained why Homelander sidelines Soldier Boy before the end. It’s a character decision, not a scheduling one, and it’s all about Homelander’s bottomless abandonment issues.

"He just couldn’t let his dad leave again or be without his father again because the last time, it wasn’t Soldier Boy’s fault that he left. So much of Homelander’s issues are wrapped up in daddy issues and issues with Ryan. His son abandoned him, and I just don’t think he could handle being abandoned by his father."

That interview made the rounds on X, and, yeah, it did not calm anybody down.

Why fans are mad

• The finale hasn’t aired yet, but the takeaway is clear: Soldier Boy won’t be there. After seasons of hyping him as the chaos factor since season 3, he gets put on ice right before the last lap.
• People argue the show leaned into Soldier Boy this year — some say he even had more screentime than Ryan and the Gen V crew — only to, as one post put it, "lock him up in a fridge." Another frustrated take: "The Boys spent 5 seasons building the only weapon that can stop Homelander and then left him in a fridge."
• The decision is being compared (loudly) to the kind of finale face-plant fans still associate with Game of Thrones. A few are even saying this season undercuts what made the series great in the first place.
• A big sticking point: viewers feel like Soldier Boy got used mostly to tee up a separate project. There’s a prequel spinoff in the works called Vought Rising, with Soldier Boy set as a lead, and fans think this season reduced him to a walking ad for that show instead of a true endgame player.

So... was this the plan all along?

The online read is that Soldier Boy was introduced as the ultimate wild card to take down Homelander, but the show benched him anyway. Whether you buy Kripke’s rationale or not, the choice is a head-scratcher structurally: if you’ve built your blunt instrument for five seasons, why stick it back in the freezer right before the final boss fight?

I get the character logic Kripke is laying out — Homelander clings to any version of a father he can get — but I also get why fans feel burned. If you tease a grenade for multiple seasons, people expect to see it go off in the finale, not get bubble-wrapped for a prequel. And for anyone wondering: some posts are also lamenting what they call the cancellation of Gen V; either way, that frustration is feeding the sense that the universe is expanding while the main show is folding key pieces away just when they matter most.

We’ll see how the actual finale plays, but the temperature right now is volcanic. If nothing else, The Boys doesn’t do quiet exits.