The Boys season five was inspired by Breaking Bad’s ending but fans aren’t buying it

With just one episode left until The Boys comes to an end, there’s much anticipation about whether the season five finale can wrap up the many storylines in a satisfying way. 

While the fandom has been very vocal about how the Prime Video series has used its time, showrunner Eric Kripke has said he and the writing team took inspiration from one of the best final seasons of all time: Breaking Bad. 

Specifically, they used the same process as Vince Gilligan’s team to try and pay off the loose ends that had been set up years earlier.

Breaking Bad spent weeks mapping every loose end

For context, the ending of Breaking Bad is one of the few perfect examples of a TV finale that satisfied – rather than divided – the fans. It provided closure, tied up loose ends, and saw Walter White (Bryan Cranston) facing consequences for his actions. 

Finally, the writers board for Felina. Thanks to Tom Schnauz
byu/Erhmantraut41 inbreakingbad

One of the reasons for this is due to creator Vince Gilligan and his team meticulously mapping out every surviving character and dangling plot thread before scripts were even written, spending weeks just coming up with ideas. 

The writers’ room itself famously used giant corkboards covered in index cards, with each card presenting a single plot beat. 

Writer Thomas Schnauz later shared photos of the process online, showing walls filled with handwritten cards carefully arranged into episode structures. This meant that pre-writing preparation took weeks, but it’s also a huge reason why the series – and its ending – felt so perfect. 

Kripke has now said that his team took inspiration from this process when planning The Boys’ final chapter. 

The Boys season 5 writers used a Breaking Bad trick

In a conversation with Ringer TV, Kripke was asked about how the team balanced wrapping up all of the character arcs with fan service and deciding what made the cut. 

“A lot of it comes out of the first five/six weeks of the room, ‘cause that’s when we’re really talking about the overview of the characters. The thing we were most clear on was the last 10 minutes of the finale,” he replied. 

“After the big fight and explosion, we sort of knew where we wanted every character to end up.”

Much like Breaking Bad, they had columns on whiteboards for every character and beat for each of the eight season five episodes.

They started off with where they knew the episode would end and then began filling in the blanks. 

“And then whatever didn’t service that, usually that was a good clue that it had to go away,” Kripke continued.  

“I mean, we throw in jokes and moments and satire and our usual nonsense. But the spines were always looking at what they needed to go through to hit the beats that we needed to hit.

Can't show ya much without spoilin' the whole kit and caboodle. But Wednesday, we're going all the way. No matter the cost. Til the job's fuckin' done. pic.twitter.com/yzbgI6WtdL

— THE BOYS (@TheBoysTV) May 17, 2026

“Like, written on the board for episode seven was ‘We need to remind Huey and the audience that Butcher will murder anyone who gets in his way on his way to his ultimate goal, and to beware.’

“You’ll see in episode eight that that becomes an important piece of information.”

Kripke went on to say, “The other thing we did – because I heard anecdotally that this is what Breaking Bad did and I liked the idea – is we had our writer’s assistant go through every single loose end.”

So every single character and storyline that had been “left on the floor” was listed, resulting in an entire board filled with beats to wrap up. 

“When you’re looking for ‘What’s a story that we want to play or what’s a character,’ we’re like, ‘Well, let’s go to the board. Is there something we can pay off that we set up seasons ago and then we’ll look like geniuses because we did that’.”

Kripke credits this for bringing back characters like Eagle the Archer and Adam Bourke. “All those things came out of just having a menu that we could play with internally.”

Fans have thoughts about the comparison

There’s been a lot of criticism from The Boys fandom towards the final chapter of the show, particularly in regards to how it’s used its time. 

A lot of fans weren’t happy with episode six, for example, as it placed focus on setting up Bombsight and the upcoming spinoff Vought Rising. 

Others feel their favourite characters are making unusual decisions in order to ensure the main players are left standing for the finale. 

As such, Kripke’s comparison to Breaking Bad has raised a few eyebrows. In response to the interview, one wrote, “Imagine if Breaking Bad’s final season just had Saul make Lalo references for eight episodes to set up Better Call Saul.”

Another wrote, “I’ve watched every episode and I can say that everything feels rushed and tons of stuff feels forgotten and neglected. Most of the season actually feels like nothing happened. It feels like the plot hasn’t advanced.”

“They got balls to even MENTION one of the greatest shows when talking about theirs,” added a third, while a fourth chimed in, “This finale better be the best thing I’ve ever seen in media.”

If you want to make up your own mind, The Boys season five episode eight lands on Prime Video on Wednesday, May 20th.

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Featured image credit: Prime Video/AMC