Gen V

Amazon

Fans of The Boys spinoff Gen V have been more than a little annoyed that A) the show was recently canceled, and B) its characters, who spent two seasons supporting the storyline of the main series, have showed up for two minutes total and were seemingly dismissed by an annoyed Starlight. And even with some sort of role in the finale, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has said it was never meant to be an end to their story and they’re not going to get a satisfying conclusion there.

Beyond that, in a TVLine interview, Kripke addressed the criticism that Marie Moreau, the blood-bending supe who can do everything from restraining supes to exploding them to literally raising the dead, was being portrayed as someone who could not take on Homelander. That’s with Gen V saying that, given that she and Homelander were “created” in a similar fashion, she’s the only supe alive at his power level. Here’s Kripke:

"She has all of this power, and everyone online is like, 'Well, why doesn’t she just go take on Homelander?’ I’m like, 'She’s a 19-year-old kid! She has no idea how to wield any of it in any sort of responsible, controlled way,’" Kripke said. "Were there to be another season of Gen V, that would be her training-with-Yoda season where she really learns how to take the next step."

"The fact that she's super powerful, which she is, does not mean she's automatically ready for every single conflict, much less one as big as Homelander. It could be quite dangerous and destructive, and it could lead to a lot of collateral damage and casualties if she can't control it, so she still has a long road to go. That's what we tried to plant there."

It’s a complicated issue. On the one hand, what he’s saying does not make a ton of sense, given that almost all of season 2 was about Marie learning to control those powers in a “training-with-Yoda” sense (even if Yoda was evil) and do what he’s saying here. Though I can agree with the idea that in terms of “battle tactics,” the more experienced Homelander could win that fight. At least 1v1.

It also stands to reason that with Gen V having half or less the viewership of the main series (hence its cancellation), that suddenly bringing in a god-tier supe to go head-to-head with Homelander or show up and start reviving dead characters would be somewhat disorienting, and at least narratively, not really be the right move for the finale. The best hope right now may be that Marie contributes in some way to the fight in a meaningful fashion, even though she obviously would not be the one to land the final blow.

This season has been a bit off the rails, but there is still hope that it can pull it together for the finale. The Gen V stuff may not land well, but hopefully the final showdown works. At this point, however, given the groundswell of support and the main series ending, I do think Amazon should consider uncancelling Gen V as a pillar of the universe going forward. Good luck with that, however.

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