The Boys Creator Braces for Finale Backlash After Game of Thrones Fallout
As The Boys barrels toward its endgame, creator Eric Kripke says the specter of Game of Thrones’ divisive finale looms large—and he’s terrified of the fan verdict as he fights to stick the landing on TV’s brashest superhero satire.
If you think wrapping up The Boys without lighting the internet on fire is going to be easy, think again. Series creator Eric Kripke is just as freaked out about the finale as the rest of us—and if you remember how Game of Thrones went down in flames, it is not hard to see why.
When Finales Haunt Showrunners
Kripke has been making the interview rounds, and in both THE RIVER and Polygon interviews, he's basically admitted that the pressure of nailing the ending for one of TV's biggest superhero shows is a whole thing. Apparently, the guy is not losing sleep because of Homelander's laser eyes—he's worried about ending up in the same spot as Game of Thrones.
Kripke put it bluntly:
'I approached it with absolute terror. I was not cool or confident. I was really scared that we'd get a Game of Thrones kind of reaction.'
Direct, right? And he does not stop there. He actually defends Game of Thrones a bit, calling it a 'groundbreaking, monumental achievement' that happened to 'stumble a little bit on three episodes in eight seasons.' But the internet forgot all the good stuff:
'And so now everyone is like, Game of Thrones, meh. I'm like, really? That show changed the world and was so hard to make.'
Sweating the Details (Probably More Than Ever)
Instead of hiding under a desk somewhere, Kripke says the fear forced him to go over the finale with a microscope. He didn't let anything slide, double-checking every line, every plot choice, basically making sure nothing would explode (at least, not in the bad way).
Do the people who have watched it think he nailed it? Maybe. But as Kripke points out, there's a catch:
'People who see it tend to say it’s good, but those are all people who work for me, so who the hell knows.'
Why Is Ending a Show So Tough?
- Kripke says you 'can really count on two hands the great series finales'—so, not exactly great odds.
- He flat-out says 'landing the plane is hard.' (Turns out, writing a final episode might be harder than taking on Vought.)
- The shadow of Game of Thrones is real: even a show that changed television forever got dragged the minute the ending disappointed people.
In other words, stick the landing or prepare for years of memes and angry Reddit threads.
Where the Show Is Right Now
In case you've missed the schedule, The Boys is currently in Season 5, dropping new episodes on Prime Video every Wednesday. So the big finale Kripke's sweating over has not hit us just yet—but, judging from his honesty, he's possibly his own toughest critic right now.