Well, it's fair to say we didn't see this news coming.
Just a couple of hours after the review embargo for The Boys season 4 lifted, showrunner Eric Kripke has confirmed that the upcoming fifth season will also be the show's last.
"[The Boys] Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season!" he announced on X. "Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax. Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun!"
The biggest criticism in the reviews that hit today is it feels like the show is now treading water and, to some extent, running on fumes. With that in mind, we're glad to see Kripke is sticking to his original five-season plan rather than stretching this story out any further simply to capitalise on The Boys' popularity.
Having seen season 4 in its entirety, we can say that it didn't necessarily feel like a penultimate chapter and, if anything, it was very much a redo of season 3 in some respects. Now, that final batch of episodes will really have to up the ante to send The Boys out on a high.
There may, of course, be other reasons for the show ending with season 5. Streamers don't release viewing figures so we have no idea how The Boys has fared from year-to-year, particularly with some big gaps between seasons.
It's also possible deals for the cast are up and many of them want to move on to other projects. Ultimately, the important thing is that Kripke is getting to tell the story he envisioned in the time he wanted. There's no word on what this means for Gen V or the Mexico-set spin-off.
"I am - without hyperbole - literally the worst person in history at predicting how long their show should go," Kripke said in a recent interview. "No one in the entire history of the entertainment business has been more wrong than me, giving interview after interview on how I thought Supernatural should end after five years."
"So I would be crazy to speculate on how many seasons any show should go. I’m not going to make that same mistake again. But, yes, I do have an ending in mind."
Check out his statement below.