The Boys will be back, one last time.

Hughie Campbell and Annie January in The Boys stood opposite each other and talking. They are standing in a room with artwork on the wall behind them.

Prime Video

The fourth season of Prime Video’s adult superhero show The Boys has now come to its intense conclusion, setting up the fifth and final season.

The season 4 finale, which did not come out under its original title Assassination Run and featured a trigger warning following the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump, certainly ups the ante for all involved.

Sadly, we’ve now got a bit of a wait for the next run of episodes, with Billy Butcher star Karl Urban confirming that we won’t be seeing it any time soon.

So when will season 5 be released, why is the show ending and who from the cast is likely to be back for one last ride? Read on for everything you need to know about The Boys season 5 – warning: season 4 spoilers ahead.

When will The Boys season 5 be released?

The Boys season 5 will be released in 2026, as confirmed in a recent Instagram post by actor Karl Urban.

Alongside a picture of co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Urban wrote: “Working with the illustrious @jeffreydeanmorgan was the best part of my day every day. That’s all @theboystv for now folks. See you in …2 years (wish it was sooner) for the final season
on @primevideo.”

We can also look back at previous seasons’ release dates to get a closer sense of how long we might have to wait.

Ryan standing in an office looking down, conflicted, with Homelander looking at him over his shoulder in the background.

Antony Starr as Homelander and Cameron Crovetti as Ryan in The Boys. Jasper Savage/Prime Video

While seasons 1 and 2 of the show came out in fairly quick succession, with just a year to wait between them, the show has since taken longer to make, with a break of approximately two years between the release of seasons 2 and 3 and then again between 3 and 4.

As that schedule seems to be relatively built-in now, we would expect to see season 5 arriving in summer 2026 – however, that could of course change, and we will keep this page updated as soon as any more concrete information is released.

Why will The Boys season 5 be the final season?

Showrunner Eric Kripke has explained his reasoning for ending The Boys with its fifth season, saying it was always his plan and he just had to convince Prime Video.

He told TVLine that Prime Video pushed back “lovingly”, adding: “There was no, like, ‘You have to keep this show going.’ It was more of like a very friendly and respectful, like, ‘Are you sure season 5 is the last season? Are you sure you don’t want to do more?'”

He continued: “But we were already, like, barreling towards this. The truth is we knew that it was going to be a five-season story for years now. I mean, probably since writing the beginning of season 3, we knew, and so we were already laying down track that was always heading in this direction.

“Honestly, they’ve been great about letting us end it on our own terms. I’m really grateful.”

Chace Crawford as The Deep and Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett in The Boys

Chace Crawford as The Deep and Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett in The Boys. Amazon Studios

However, fans don’t need to worry that the fifth season will be a full-stop on the world of The Boys. With a second season of Gen V on the way, and another Mexico-set spin-off in development, it seems there is plenty of potential for the universe to run and run.

Kripke told Entertainment Weekly: “This story of The Boys will not continue on. With any luck, Gen V will continue on, there will be hopefully a couple others in development that we’re talking about that can continue on, but The Boys story ends in season 5.”

Who will be back to star in The Boys season 5?

The cast for The Boys season 5 has not yet been confirmed, but it seems likely that all of the main stars from The Boys season 4 will be back for season 5 – at least those who survived.

That means we probably won’t be seeing Claudia Doumit’s Victoria Neuman or Laila Robins’s Grace Mallory again, except in flashback, as both characters suffered brutal deaths in the season 4 finale.

In terms of returns, Jensen Ackles’s Soldier Boy looks set to play an important role in season 5 proceedings, following the tease at the end of the previous season, where Homelander discovered him in cryosleep.

Here’s a full list of the characters and cast members who could currently make a return in season 5:

Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell
Karl Urban as Billy Butcher
Erin Moriarty as Annie/Starlight
Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk
Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko
Tomer Capone as Serge/Frenchie
Antony Starr as Homelander
Chace Crawford as The Deep
Colby Minifie as Ashley Barrett

Cameron Crovetti as Ryan
Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
Nathan Mitchell as Black Noir
Susan Heyward as Sister Sage
Valorie Curry as Firecracker
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Joe Kessler
Rosemarie DeWitt as Daphne Campbell
Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve

Is there a trailer for The Boys season 5?

There isn’t a trailer available for The Boys season 5 yet, and as it has yet to start filming it is likely to be a while until we get one.

We will add any new footage from season 5 in here as and when it is released, but in the meantime you can rewatch the season 4 trailer below.

The Boys seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Prime Video – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime.