Butcher and Homelander fighting in The Boys
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The Boys season five finale runtime has been revealed and I’m SICK

Surely that's not enough time to wrap everything up

Daisy Phillipson
15th May 2026, 13:33
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There’s just one more episode to go until The Boys reaches its diabolical end, but rather than giving us a bumper finale à la Stranger Things, showrunner Eric Kripke is keeping the runtime brief. Frankly, I’m worried. 

When The Boys first debuted in 2019, it quickly proved itself to be the antidote we all needed to superhero fatigue. Violent, funny, and bitingly satirical, it fulfilled all our nihilistic desires while still having something to say about the late-stage capitalist world we live in. 

I feel like I should preface this by saying I still love The Boys and what it says about modern politics (hell, it’s basically the new Simpsons in terms of predicting the future). But the show has fallen into the same trap as Stranger Things: not killing off any of its main characters. 

It’s why the Stranger Things finale felt like an extra-long fan service farewell, one where the stakes were tragically low. And now everyone’s worried the same is going to happen with The Boys. 

There’s only one episode left and so far the only deaths we’ve had are Firecracker, Black Noir 2, and now Frenchie. We can forget any hopes of Butcher getting a comic-accurate villain arc – there simply isn’t enough time… quite literally, it turns out. 

The Boys season five finale runtime is way shorter than expected

Frenchie, Kimiko, Mother's Milk, Annie, and Hughie in The Boys
Credit: Prime Video

The Boys season five episode eight, titled ‘Blood and Bone’, has a runtime of 65 minutes. That’s it – just one hour and five minutes left and then the flagship series is no more. 

Kripke spoke about this last month in an interview with Collider when asked if the finale will be a bumper 90-minute long episode. 

“It’s not… We’re not doing that huge, super-sized 90-minute thing. I think the audience might have ended up getting bored had we gone that long.” 

The finale will also be airing in select 4DX US and Canadian cinemas a few hours before it drops on Prime Video, which has further confirmed the runtime. 

To put that into perspective, here are all the main characters still standing (and who deserve for their stories to be completed): Homelander, Butcher, Mother’s Milk, Hughie, Starlight, Kimiko, Sister Sage, Deep, Maeve (she was teased earlier, ‘member?), and Soldier Boy. 

Then there’s Stan Edgar and his granddaughter Zoe, Homelander’s actual son Ryan, and that’s before we even get to Gen V’s Marie and Jordan. 

Given Gen V was inexplicably cancelled by Amazon last month after just two seasons, they should at least get the ending they deserve, but that’s going to be near impossible given the lack of airtime left. 

Also, is anyone else confused about the supe virus? Now the focus is on depowering Homelander after Soldier Boy gave him the V1, but it’s unclear whether the virus has been entirely forgotten despite all of that buildup.  

Plus, Sage’s master plan raises questions – she was one of the best parts of The Boys season four, but in the fifth chapter it seems she’s mostly there to insert gags about Taco Bell. 

One story I’m particularly butthurt about is that in Gen V season two, Marie was being built up as the one supe whose powers could rival Homelander’s. But after her two-scene intro in season five episode seven, I fear she’ll just be another part of the background.

Maybe The Boys can still pull this off… maybe

Sage, Deep, and Homelander in The Boys
Credit: Prime Video

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. But despite everything I’ve just highlighted, I still have hopes that The Boys will do better than, say, Stranger Things, firstly because I don’t think Kripke would spend a huge chunk of the last episode on saccharine goodbyes. 

Secondly, according to the episode eight leaks (linked here but only click if you don’t want potential spoilers), a lot of the budget went on the finale.

The leaks are, of course, unconfirmed, but it would make sense that the crew would want to go big for the final showdown between Butcher and Homelander. Plus, the cast have said the ending is heartbreaking but also satisfying, meaning we can expect some big deaths. 

Since it’s highly unlikely Butcher is getting the villain arc from the comics, I just hope Homelander gets the ending he deserves: depowered, and forced to live his life as a regular, aging human. 

Either that or the show just goes scorched earth and Homelander wins. Ultimately, if the finale wants to truly stick the landing, it can’t be pulling any punches. 

After five seasons of telling us how corrupt, violent, and irredeemable this world is, a neat fan service ending where everyone survives simply wouldn’t feel honest.

Maybe Kripke and the writers can somehow pull it all off in 65 minutes. I genuinely hope they do. But with this many unresolved storylines still up in the air, it’s hard not to feel like The Boys is running out of time at the exact moment it needs it most.

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Featured image credit: Prime Video