'The Boys' issues warning for its season finale for including a fictional assassination attempt. Its showrunner wasn't trying to predict the future.
This post contains spoilers for The Boys.
The Boys, the Prime Video superhero satire, has never shied away from parodying American politics. In its Season 4 finale, the series might have inadvertently gone too far.
The episode title was originally "Assassination Run,” but it is now listed as “Season 4 finale.” It shows an assassination attempt on the fictional president-elect, as well as the death of another high-ranking politician, airing just days after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The show’s official social media accounts shared a statement on July 18 from Prime Video and Sony Pictures Television, which states that scenes in the episode that are similar to real-world events were “coincidental and unintentional.” It appears in part with a “viewer discretion advised” warning at the start of the episode.
"The season finale of The Boys contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump," the statement says.
The show was filmed back in 2023 and written long before then. It has always parodied American politics — showrunner Eric Kripke said that the show’s biggest villain, Homelander, is a Trump analogue, and a new character named Firecracker is modeled after Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.
Valorie Curry, who plays Firecracker, told Yahoo Entertainment in May that The Boys feels “of-the-moment” and “continues to be relevant long after” they finished filming.
“I think people will watch the show and see reflected in it so much of what’s happening right now and not realize that the show was written almost two years ago,” she said. “Some of it is prescient, some of it is right on the pulse.”
Claudia Doumit plays politician Victoria Neuman, who is based on on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She told Yahoo Entertainment in May that she feels like her character predicted the future.
“It’s a pretty bleak political landscape right now, and I think the show does a brilliant job of mirroring what’s out there in the world,” Doumit said. “Some things I say, like speeches or a monologue, come out of my mouth and I think, ‘This is batshit. This is absurd.’ But we hear crazy things like that every day.”
Kripke told Yahoo Entertainment in May his aim is not for The Boys to be so clairvoyant. The show’s fourth season sees Homelander rallying his radical fanbase. In the finale, superheroes join forces to take over the U.S. government — on Jan. 6, no less.
“Look, I didn’t predict it, I just happen to be running the show that is the most about the current moment,” he said.
