The Boys Season 5 Has Revealed Homelander's Final Plan

Spoilers for "The Boys" Season 5, Episode 4, "King of Hell," to follow.

Season 4 of superhero satire "The Boys" ended with deluded super "hero" Homelander (Antony Starr), becoming de facto U.S. president. The ongoing final season has explored both Homelander's authoritarian regime, and how he's still dissatisfied that not enough people love him. 

In an interview with /Film and yours truly, "The Boys" creator Eric Kripke explained Homelander's arc across the series like this: "The more power he accrues, the less happy he becomes." Who's more powerful than the U.S. President? In the season's third episode, "Every One of You Sons of B*tches," Homelander experiences a hallucination wherein an angelic Madelyn Stilwell (Elisabeth Shue) encourages him to "ascend" — "Why should [Jesus] have more love than you?"

"King of Hell" confirms that Homelander now sees himself as the messiah and wants everyone else to as well. He's also trying to find the V-One formula that will make him immortal, like a true god.

When Homelander tells Firecracker (Valorie Curry) that an angel gave him his destiny as "God," she initially thinks he means serving God. When he tells her he won't be merely serving the Lord, Firecracker can only sputter out a terrified "Congrats."

Homelander wants the propagandist Firecracker to spread his word. She eventually decides that Homelander's church needs to intertwine with his brand of American nationalism. "The things that [Jesus] preached, turning the other cheek, taking in foreigners, caring for the poor, that sh*t don't sell no more." (See also: Al Franken's "Supply Side Jesus.")

Mega preacher supe Oh-Father (Daveed Diggs) joins in proselytizing for this "Democratic Church of America." Now it's clear why this season brought in a religion-themed character.

In the aforementioned interview with /Film, Eric Kripke said "The Boys" Season 5 was written before the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. "It's been straight up troubling how much of what we thought were out there, speculative ideas, how many of them have actually come to pass already," Kripke told us. I conducted this interview on March 18th — little did Kripke know just how prophetic the story of Homelander's god complex would be.

Homelander is largely based on President Donald Trump. Episode 3 debuted the exact same week as Trump posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus on Truth Social. (He's since recanted, claiming he thought the image only portrayed him as a doctor healing the sick.) This is the sort of cosmic coincidence that could convince nonbelievers that there is a god after all.

However, Homelander's god complex is nothing new. Stormfront (Aya Cash) thought the blond, blue-eyed superhuman Homelander was her savior, but Homelander was discomfited by her "Aryan master race" ideology — because he sees only himself as the master race. Homelander has publicly played the part of a devout Christian, but back in Season 3, he blasphemed in private: "The only man in the sky is me."

Homelander's messiah delusions and the Democratic Church of America is not a story arc in the original "The Boys" comic, but it's still true to it. "The Boys" writer Garth Ennis is an atheist and disdainful of religion; he grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, which he's described as "people fighting over how they worship their imaginary friend." Ennis and Steve Dillon's comic "Preacher" is all about killing God, but despite Homelander's delusions, "The Boys" is not.

"The Boys" is streaming on Prime Video.