When watching The Boys I’m sure many of us have been hit with the same question - ‘Wait a minute, is there a reason Homelander hasn’t just killed Billy Butcher and The Boys yet?’
It’s a question we all ask ourselves, as the Trumpian superhero flies around the country seemingly at the speed of light, lasering anyone who gets in his way… except for Butcher.
Majority of The Boys not only aren’t really threats to Homelander – they spend most of the series without superpowers, and yet four seasons in they’re basically all still alive and kicking, despite causing him untold grief.
With this being a question we’ve always wanted the answer to as well, we decided to ask Eric Kripke, the creator of The Boys that very question.
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In an exclusive chat with Kripke we sat down and finally asked: "Why hasn’t Homelander just killed Butcher yet?"
He said: “I mean, I actually think he's worried about what Ryan's reaction would be. I think for him, it sort of doesn't really matter, because the guy is going to die anyway.
“I think he is savvy enough to know that, that if he just waits it out, the guy's going to be dead.”
Whether Homelander knows it or not, season four of The Boys has shown this to be closer than we may realise – with Butcher having developed a brain tumour due to his excessive use of Compound V.
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The character has been struggling with blackouts and symptoms all season which seem to imply he is close to kicking to the bucket.
Kripke also went on to point to the realisation that the show takes place over a shorter time frame than most fans realise.
He said: “I mean, you know, when you're watching all of them, you feel like, oh, it's stretching out over weeks or months.
"It's really just like days, you know? I think he thinks he's going to let nature take its course.”
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The ultimate conclusion of the story between the pair can’t be far off – with season four confirmed to be the penultimate season of the show.
When asked about The Boys ending with the upcoming season five, Kripke told The Hollywood Reporter: “The show is a serialised story that is about Butcher and Homelander slowly crashing into each other, and the show doesn't work without either of those.
“So, you just can't keep that going on forever, you have to let them smash into each other.”
With only one season left to go - we can't wait to see how he will have these characters finally clash.
Topics: The Boys, Amazon Prime, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin