Full spoilers for Gen V’s season finale are below.
The Boys spinoff, Gen V, wrapped its second in typical bloody fashion — but with a twist.
The Prime Video show’s core cast of superpowered college students at Godolkin University (God U) end up in vastly different places than where they started after defeating their school’s resurrected founder, the demented and ultra-powerful Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater). In the aftermath of a violent, all-out mega brawl with the university’s namesake — with Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) using her blood-manipulating powers to save the day — our heroes team up and go on the run. They include: Emma Meyer (Lizzie Broadway), who can shrink and expand her size; shapeshifter Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh); super-strong (but mentally unstable) Sam Riordan (Asa Germann) and the duplicitous telepath Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips).
With Marie’s formerly estranged sister, Annabeth (Keeya King), in tow, our rogue heroes flee their evil school to join the growing resistance movement against The Boys’ Big Bad, Homelander (Antony Starr). In doing so, they meet up two familiar faces who make surprise appearances: Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher). And while nothing is officially announced, Starlight and A-Train’s cameos indicate that we’ll be seeing these characters alongside the Gen V crew in The Boys’ upcoming fifth and final season.
But, according to Gen V showrunner Michele Fazekas, the original plan for having all our Gen V heroes go from college supes to fugitive resistance fighters wasn’t exactly set in stone.
Marie (Jaz Sinclair) prepares for a showdown in a key Gen V episode / Prime Video
“The story sort of took us there,” Fazekas tells the Television Academy. “I think we knew that, generally, some of them were going to join the resistance — but that was all we knew.”
Events this season likely would have played out differently, with some characters staying behind at the school or being killed, but those plans changed following the tragic death of Gen V cast member Chance Perdomo. (The actor, who played popular supe Andre Anderson, passed away shortly before production was initially set to begin on the second season).
After producers decided not to recast Perdomo’s role, production was delayed while Fazekas and show’s writers went to work on re-breaking the season’s storyline — which now included an offscreen death for Andre. These story changes greatly impact the events of the season finale.
“Part of [those changes] were driven by the death of Chance Perdomo, and it really did change how the [season] ended. One of the really big things was — I didn't want to kill anybody else. We already had someone actually die in real life, and a character in the show die [as a result]. I was very adamant that we're not going to kill anybody else, because it seems so insignificant in light of what really happened.”
Gen V's Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater) / Prime Video
Fazekas also believes that, in a different iteration of the season, Gen V’s main characters would have ended up more fractured as they fled from their domineering university. “They probably wouldn't have all ended up all together, but that [choice] really drove a lot of the choices that we made this season.”
Gen V’s first season established that many of the student “supes” at God U have rather unimpressive — if not outright goofy — superpowers. That piece of world building became a focal point this season, when it was revealed that Thomas Godolkin wanted to outright eradicate those students that he felt were inferior.
“We knew that we had to develop Godolkin’s ultimate goal,” Fazekas explains. “And if his ultimate goal is to cull all the superheroes that he felt were taking too many resources — and just focus on the ‘great’ ones that fit his definition of [the word] — then it naturally came to us that the ones that have the ‘stupid’ powers saved the day.”
Showrunner Michele Fazekas / Getty Images
This roster of so-called “inferior” heroes included characters like Ally (Georgie Murphy), who managed to play a role in fighting Godolkin in the finale while using her power to, ahem, manipulate her pubic hair.
In Marvel’s 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, a group of superheroes triumphantly arrive in the nick of time via magical portals created by powerful sorcerers. But in Gen V, there isn’t a Doctor Strange-type character to facilitate such a heroic moment. There is, however, a frat boy supe known as Black Hole (Wyatt Dorion), who helps transport our heroes by a different kind of portal: his anus.
“I'm so happy that we ended up doing that,” the showrunner says with a laugh. “We did get a note from the network, like, ‘Maybe, um, you're not going to do that?’ It's like, ‘No, we are. We for sure are!’ But Amazon quickly embraced it, and I was very happy with that ridiculous moment.”
While Andre’s death was revealed early on in the season, the storyline finds ways to honor both the character and the actor that played him throughout the season — especially through the character of Andre’s grieving dad, Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas). There is a poignant scene in the finale where Polarity learns that his son’s last days confined to a clandestine, prison-like installation were spent trying to save his friends and defy the will of his captors. With this bittersweet revelation, Polarity promises Emma that, despite the pain of his loss, he will forge ahead in his late son’s honor. Earning this journey for the character was vital for Fazekas, and it was made that much easier by Thomas’ availability.
“Luckily, [he] was able to join us for the whole time. We never tried to force it in. Because it was so integral to the story, we didn’t ever feel like we had to make sure we mentioned Andre. It just naturally happened.”
Another cornerstone of the season was telepath Cate, who began largely as first season antagonist on her way to becoming more than a frenemy to team leader Marie. Cate’s biggest struggle in the second season was dealing with her erratic powers, which were on the fritz due to some physical trauma she suffered in the previous season's finale. Cate’s inner conflict, according to Fazekas, is one of the main draws of the character. “[She] really is fun to write,” explains the showrunner. “It's hard with a character like that being a villain; I'm glad she's on our side now, because it's hard to have a villain who can be that powerful. When I first came onto the show, I was like, ‘Oh, she's the most powerful person on this campus.’”
Fazekas was delighted that Cate’s story ultimately proved to be uplifting, given how bleak things get on Gen V. “Amidst all of this bad stuff happening, it was nice to redeem her character. It’s hard to not like Cate, even when she's done horrible things. In the context of what has happened in her life, you sort of understand why.”
Cate (Maddie Phillips)'s inner conflict this season, according to Fazekas, was "fun to write. It's hard with a character like that being a villain." / Prime Video
But Gen V’s second season ends with a few noteworthy questions still to be answered, especially around how much of a threat Cate and Marie’s respective power sets will pose to Homelander in future seasons. (Season 2 revealed that Marie and Homelander are the only successful test subjects to come out of “Project Odessa” — a secret research program designed to endow supes with godlike abilities.) God U was obsessed with ranking its powerful student body in terms of their abilities, but Fazekas acknowledges that such rankings no longer carry the weight they once did — especially as Gen V’s story evolves.
“Everyone’s understanding of what [makes] a powerful supe goes out the window somewhat, when you see that someone with super pubic hair can participate in saving the world. That's what I love about this season — not everybody's going to be Homelander, not everybody's going to be Marie, but they still can have a really big impact on what happens.”
So, what will happen next to Gen V’s heroes?
The Boys showrunner and executive producer, Eric Kripke (who also serves as an EP on Gen V) recently told The Wrap that he would love Gen V to get a third season following The Boys’ final season, though a renewal is not guaranteed at the moment. As for what she would like to see happen next, Fazekas explains that season 2’s schedule left little time to talk about specific stories for season 3: “By the time we were done with Gen V, The Boys wasn't done,” so that made it challenging to map out any future storylines without potentially stepping on the mothership’s toes.
Gen V’s potential future, according to Fazekas, “will depend in part on how The Boys wraps up. But I certainly think there are a lot of ways you can go in a new world.” That could even include a return to God U because, as Fazekas notes, “people still gotta go to college!”
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
Gen V is now streaming on Prime Video.
