As we head past the halfway point of this final season of The Boys, we sat down with star Laz Alonso again to talk more about MM's journey in these final few episodes and why he believes this is the happiest MM has ever been through these past five years, although that doesn't necessarily mean we won't see more of the old MM before the show comes to a close.
Plus, we dive into that recent Soldier Boy twist and whether MM has moved past getting revenge for his family or if there's one more twist to come. He also reflects on reuniting The Boys this season and shares his spoiler-free thoughts on what he thought of how they bring MM's story to an end in the upcoming series finale.
The season five main cast features Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jensen Ackles, and Daveed Diggs.
The first four episodes of The Boys season five are now streaming!
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ROHAN: Compared to season's past, where we've seen MM be the moral compass of The Boys and remain relatively optimistic, it almost feels like MM has a bit of a death wish this season. How did you approach playing that shifting mindset?
LAZ: Well, I'll tell you, man, I mean, this is the first season where MM is actually having some fun, which is the irony here. It's the first season where he's no longer optimistic about the future, where he's not talking everyone off the ledge. On the contrary, he's joining them on the ledge, and he's a cynic. He's given up thinking that there is a chance at restoring hope and positivity to this world. And in spite of all of that, he's the happiest he's been. His OCD haunts him less than it ever has. He's drinking, he's smoking, he's laughing, he's enjoying this ride, so to speak, all while knowing that he probably won't make it home to see who he loves the most, and he's okay with that. He's accepted his faith. I think there's something very beautiful in that, when someone decides that, regardless of what happens to me, I'm going to give my all for someone else, and and the residual effects of that, the weight that's lifted off your shoulders is amazing, you know? And so, it was a different MM this season to play, very different from any other season, just tweaking that alone.
ROHAN: Building off that, and how he's made peace with sacrificing himself for the greater good, we do also see him make efforts to help A-Train and, most recently, Countess Crow. What would you say these little victories mean to him? How do they help him move forward?
LAZ: You know, I just think that those are moments where we kind of see glimpses of the old MM. We see glimpses of his humanity and glimpses of his heart. It's still there. I don't think that he's gone completely dark the way Butcher has, you know, so there's still a person there who cares, but at the same time, he's learned how to manage that, for what we need to do.
ROHAN: This season, we get to see The Boys reunited - you, Karl, Jack, Tomar, Karen, and Erin - what was it like playing those scenes together again? How's the chemistry now that you've been together for the better part of five seasons?
LAZ: Yeah, man, I mean, you know, the interesting thing is, it literally is a band. You know, whenever we take pictures together, we always joke and say we look like a band, you know, like an old ‘80s rock band, but it really is a band. You know what the other person's instincts and character is going to do in every scene, and then you adjust accordingly, or they know what you're going to do, and they adjust accordingly to you, and it's a dance. It becomes a dance where we all kind of find our places, and there's a lot of what you see that just is not scripted, and we don't have the locations until we show up that day, so it's not rehearsed prior, but that unspoken dance where I know what Frenchie is going to do, I know what Kimiko is going to do. I know what Butcher is going to do in this moment, Hughie, Starlight, whomever, that part is what I'm going to miss the most is having worked with these people for such a long time that there is an unspoken language that exists between us when we're in character and on set, and that takes a while to to find and develop.
ROHAN: Jensen Ackles is back this season as Soldier Boy, and considering MM's history with him, what was it like for him being in close proximity with him again? Does he still have animosity or is he all about the mission of stopping Homelander?
LAZ: You know, we wrestle with that, because we wrestle with the fact that, okay, he's seeing Soldier Boy again, will it be the same visceral reaction that he had in season three, or has everything that has happened since then changed him? Clearly, he's a different person in season five than he was in season three. He looks different, he acts different. He's gone through different shit, more trauma, but also the fact that he has given up that need to survive and that need to live, and it has allowed him to become a much freer human being. It has also freed him from the traumas that plagued him in season three. So, where we see him in episode two, and we see Soldier Boy getting gassed and dying, MM can walk away, you know, he stays, he watches. He's dead, alright, I'm out, and he can let it go, something that two seasons ago would never have happened, you know, he would have been sweating. He would have been triggered, who knows, the visceral reaction that would have frozen him in his footsteps, and now, because he's accepted his fate, that he's probably not going to make it out of this battle alive. He's free, and then, Soldier Boy is alive, yeah, am I surprised? No, because this guy's like a roach. Nothing's going to kill this MF, you know, and we see that in episode three, when he's talking to Stan Edgar, he's like, yeah, Soldier Boy can't die, of course, he can't die. Like, who am I to think, you know, the more evil you are, the more likely you probably will survive.
ROHAN: Without getting into spoilers, what were your thoughts on MM’s ending? Was it the one you envisioned or something else entirely?
LAZ: One thing I'll say about Eric's way of tying up the show is that he's not tying it up to make people feel good, or to have shock value. Every death is earned, and every finale is earned. So every character's finale, I meant, is earned. So, from that standpoint, I feel like MM’s fate is earned, and I felt like it was something that the writers really figured out the right way to make everything feel the way it should, without it just being for shock value. You know, our show is shocking, but we try to make even the shocking moments earned.
Check out more of our The Boys season five interviews:
The Boys Season 5 will premiere the first two episodes on Wednesday, April 8th, followed by weekly episodes, leading up to the epic series finale on Wednesday, May 20th.
In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.