The Boys Season 4 showrunner Eric Kripke addressed Simon Pegg’s emotional exit from the popular superhero series. Pegg has portrayed the recurring role of Hugh Campbell Sr. since the first installment.

In the latest episode of The Boys Season 4, Jack Quaid’s Hughie had to heartbreakingly end his father’s life, after Hugh’s body and mind failed to cope with the side effects of Compound V, which led him to accidentally kill innocent people in the hospital. Speaking with EW, Kripke shared more insight into Hugh Campbell Sr.’s emotional death sequence, revealing that Hugh calling his son “my Wee Hughie,” during the scene was actually improvised by Pegg. This served as a callback to the original comic book series, in which Hughie was given the nickname “Wee Hughie.”

“That came from Simon,” Kripke said. “That was not in the script. He reached out to me, and he said, ‘Can I call him ‘Wee Hughie’ as one last nod?’ For him, this wasn’t just him leaving the show, this was him saying goodbye to 20 years of this character being a part of his life. I thought that was a perfect way to come full circle.” Before signing on for the role of Hugh Campbell Sr., Pegg had long been associated with The Boys comic book series, since the character of Hughie was originally designed after the likeness of the Hot Fuzz actor.

“For him, this wasn’t just him leaving the show, this was him saying goodbye to 20 years of this character being a part of his life.”

The Boys hails from creator and executive producer Eric Kripke, who’s best known for his work on the Supernatural series. The Prime Video comedy also stars Karl Urban as Butcher, Antony Starr as Homelander, Erin Moriarty as Annie/Starlight, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, Laz Alonso as M.M., Chace Crawford as The Deep, Tomer Capone as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko/ The Female, Colby Minifie as Ashley, Claudia Doumit as Victoria Neuman, and Cameron Crovetti as Ryan. For the fourth installment, they are joined by several new faces to the franchise, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Joe Kessler, Susan Heyward as Jessica Bradley/Sister Sage, and Valorie Curry as Misty Tucker Gray/Firecracker.

The Boys to End With Season 5

Before Season 4 made its debut, Kripke had officially announced that The Boys would be concluding its run on Prime Video with its upcoming fifth season. Despite this, he believes that there’s still a future for the superhero franchise, after Butcher and Homelander’s stories wrap up in Season 5. “I think they can and should continue. The Boys‘ story is about Butcher and Homelander and these two planets crashing into each other and this particular story doesn’t work without both of them. And you can only keep that going for so long,” he explained. “So what I would say is, this particular story is ending, the Butcher-Homelander is ending. But there can be other stories and other corners of the universe. And hopefully, it’s vibrant and perverted enough to allow for those stories.”

The first five episodes of The Boys Season 4 are now available for streaming on Prime Video.