The Prime Video series The Boys is now finished, and a lot of fans have wondered about the absence of a character who was central at the start of the show.
After four seasons of splattering liters of hemoglobin (and more) on the walls, The Boys ended in blood and tears, but this time the blood and tears came from the audience. The Amazon superhero series wrapped up after a fifth season that was broadly poorly received by fans, which even earned the scathing 1/10 score from viewers on Metacritic.
Since it began airing in April, the creator Erik Kripke has been doing post-launch damage control for this final season. After explanations about the underwhelming nature of the characters in the Gen V spin-off, whose roles were whittled down to almost nothing, and the midseason lull, he justified the absence of a character who was nonetheless central to the story and the universe. And this time, it’s fairly understandable.
THE BOYS AND THE GIRL
Where did Maeve go? For context, the Wonder Woman-inspired superhero had lost her powers after Soldier Boy’s explosion in season 3, which gave her a chance to fake her own death and depart from The Protector and Vought. She didn’t reappear in season 4, but fans still expected to see her for a farewell bout, or at least to be updated on her fate.
And that was indeed the original plan, but it could not come to fruition, as Erik Kripke explained to GoldDerby:
“I would have loved to have Maeve. I spoke about it with Dominique McElligott. We still email from time to time. She’s practically retired from acting and her schedule didn’t line up. All of this was very amicable, with no controversy. I asked her: ‘If we write something, would you come back?’ And she told me she was a bit out of all this…
Indeed, since she left the cast of The Boys, the actress (also seen in House of Cards and Astronaut Wives Club) has not shown up anywhere. On the other hand, perhaps a line or two of news via another character, a letter, an email, or even a telegram could have worked… But it wouldn’t have saved anything or spared the disappointment of not seeing the character again.
Gen V may have been canceled after two seasons (hence the rather lame cameos from characters), but the universe of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson will continue with a new spinoff about Soldier Boy’s origins, Vought Rising, for which Prime Video released a trailer. For now, no release date has been announced, but we can expect to see this spinoff and prequel come to light sometime in 2027.
