This breakdown contains spoilers for previous seasons of The Boys and Gen V.
The first full trailer for The Boys Season 4 has dropped, and it’s time for a good ol’ fashion war between monsters and humans! That might sound fantastical, but if you were looking for an escape from real-world issues, you’re not going to find it here. The Boys used to be an extreme look at where America could end up. Now? Now it’s just kind of holding up a mirror. But hey, at least we’ve got some Suped-up chickens to keep us entertained!
Let’s take a look at what the new trailer means for the upcoming season of The Boys.
Previously, on Trailers for The Boys Season 4
Ok, the last one was a teaser, but what the hell is the difference nowadays anyway? Here’s a quick “We Didn’t Start the Fire”-esque list of what went down last time for those who don’t want to dig into our previous Season 4 trailer breakdown. No, it won’t rhyme. I’m not Billy Joel. But, speaking of Billys: Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) is dying because he can’t (or couldn’t, his addict status is currently unclear) stop shooting up V24; there’s a culture war afoot, with Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Homelander (Antony Starr) as the faces of the respective sides; Singer/Neuman won the election and are now President and Vice President of the United States of America; and I totally think Homelander is gonna die this upcoming season. Caught up? Good.
The “Last” Stand of Billy Butcher
While it’s highly unlikely that Billy Butcher actually dies of V24 poisoning (at the end of Season 4 or otherwise), what’s important is that he believes he is going to. The trailer opens on Butcher gathering The Boys for one last ride, one that he sees as his final opportunity to right at least some of his wrongs, and perhaps save his young son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) along the way. We’ll get back to that influenceable young man in a moment.
Why isn’t Butcher going to die from something as simple as V24 poisoning? Because that kind of death is only poetic when it happens to Lex Luthor, this ain’t a Superman comic, and Billy the Butcher is a completely different kind of bastard. When Billy goes, it feels safe to assume that it will be at least somewhat similar to his end in the comics, where he (spoiler alert for 12 year old comic I guess) tricks poor Hughie into killing him.
What’s noteworthy here is Butcher’s introspection. Turns out being faced with your own mortality and failing the long-lost love of your life can affect anyone, even Billy Butcher. Still, don’t expect these thoughtful moments to make up too much of Season 4. Everyone’s right back to their old antics shortly after the trailer’s quiet intro.
The Ryan of It All
Sweet, sweet Ryan. He and Gen V’s Sam will be the joint poster children of countless op-eds about how easy it is to negatively radicalize young American boys towards violence. The question is, which one of them learns from the bloodshed and comes out on the other side? Because it’s very unlikely that it ends up being both.
The trailer sees young Ryan, who is under the thrall of Homelander these days, turning his back on Butcher — a tidbit that we were already aware of. But what we weren’t previously sure of is just how far Homelander would be able to push his charge. Turns out we’re hopping straight to murder, as Ryan appears to use his superstrength to splatter a human against a brick wall. He does, at least, seem appropriately mortified afterwards though.
While there’s always a chance that the trailer is cut specifically to fake us out, Ryan getting an early murder on the books may be the smack in the face he needs to realize that he’s not interested in flying in Homelander’s jet trail. Unfortunately, it’s equally possible that it becomes his point of no return. If there is such a thing.
Which takes us to our Godolkin Alums.
The Gods of Godolkin
Homelander’s on his wrathful god kick, but he’s also got a strong penchant for corrupting them kids! There was little question that Gen V’s Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann) would be making an appearance in The Boys Season 4, given that it was Homelander who kept them out of prison after they razed the Godolkin campus in the finale of Gen V. What hasn’t been made clear is what their roles will be throughout all of this.
We see a glimpse of them at Vought Tower, but it’s Firecracker (Valerie Curry) who seems to be leading the war on Starlight, not Cate. Firecracker, alongside Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), is a new addition to Vought’s team this season. We don’t know her powers just yet, but it feels safe to infer that they’ll be fire-related. Maybe she’s a pissed off, glock-carrying Jubilee ripoff? Jubilee wouldn’t need a glock, that’s all I’m sayin’…
Firecracker taking the lead on Starlight makes it appear as if Cate and Sam haven’t quite been promoted to The Seven status just yet. That is, unless one of our previous theories on Black Noir end up being correct.
Back in the first teaser, we see Black Noir back on his feet. It’s noteworthy because the Supe is, well, very dead after his Homelander altercation. This means that one of two things is occurring: we’re meeting a comic accurate Black Noir in Season 4 (he’s a Homelander clone in the comics) or Sam with his super strength will be taking on the mantle going forward.
Could Sam joining The Seven and leaving Cate in the minor leagues drive a wedge between the super students?
A Country Past Saving
If you thought The Boys’ political commentary felt timely before… phew. Buckle up, kids. We’re in for a bumpy ride, and The Boys Season 4 looks to be ready to center on that ride when it drops in June. Y’know, right as election year hell threatens to consume us entirely.
This new trailer features various scenes of unrest, several of which can act as a 1:1 comparison to images taken across college campuses in America over this past week. The Boys’ illustration of the brewing turmoil represents the two sides as Homelanders and Starlighters, with Homelander remaining squarely as the show’s Trump allegory and Starlight unwittingly ending up as the face of all those opposed to Homelander’s fascism.
Said fascism ties to the trailer’s — and presumably the season’s — central theme: authoritarian rulers vs. the would-be ruled.
Homelander is done with The Seven being celebrities. It’s time for them to take their rightful place as wrathful gods. Vought’s lost control, the Ashleys know they’re f**ked, and the only thing standing between the Supes and the people are a small group of screw-ups led by Billy Butcher, a sociopath on his best day.
Don’t take that to mean that regular people won’t play a role in the upcoming season though. It’s safe to assume we’ll see plenty of human casualties, but it also feels reasonable to guess that we might see humanity come together just a little bit before it’s all said and done. Of course, this is The Boys, so expect that kumbaya moment to come with a huge grain of salt.
Killer Times With A Killer Virus
As mentioned, the first teaser for the season heavily implied that Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) and Victoria Nueman (Claudia Doumit) have successfully made it to the White House. Neuman, a Supe herself, also still happens to be in possession of a virus that can eradicate anyone and everyone with Compound V in their systems. What the Vice President intends to do with it, we don’t know, but the real question is can she keep her hands on it before The Boys kick down her door and try to steal it?
The implications of unleashing a Supe-killing virus are far-reaching and pretty complicated, a fact that the trailer acknowledges when Starlight points out Billy’s desperation. Billy seems pretty ok with his decision-making process (as always), but unleashing the contagion in its current form wouldn’t just kill Butcher’s enemies, it’d kill Ryan, Starlight, Neuman’s daughter, and a whole lot of other innocent bystanders. Not to mention the chance that it could take out any V24 users as well. Butcher’s fine with dying, but is he fine with taking Hughie down with him too? Who can say!
When The Boys Season 4 premiere hits on June 14, it looks like we’ll be watching the battle for America’s soul unfolding in real time and on our TV screens. Escapism, amirite?!
What was your favorite part of the new trailer? Shout it out in the comments!
