The Boys: Top 5 predictions for season 4 (and beyond)!

The Boys has never shied away from controversy, and it’s easy to assume that season 4 of the Amazon Prime series will be no different. It is both fun and interesting to speculate on where the series may end up.

Obviously, not all of these predictions will necessarily be correct, and I admit to making them without having read the comic book series. It’s also possible that, in any predictions that are correct, they might apply to future seasons aside from season 4.

These are arranged from least to most likely (5 being plausible, 1 being “This is guaranteed!”).

5. The Boys will probably address authoritarian “surveillance states”

Previous seasons of The Boys established that Vought is a very powerful organization, culturally and politically. In fact, even non-supes at Vought have a great deal of sway.

So it’s not inconceivable that, in future seasons, the organization might expand further into a “Big Brother”-style central network, with handy tools like AI technology, virtual reality, and advanced surveillance technology to monitor and control the public. This would be in addition to the power of supes themselves, including their development of drugs like Compound V and V24.

Vought not only has superpowered miscreants to enforce its will, but if it creates a genetic database of the population, any Stormfront-style racist in charge would have the ability to impose their racist eugenics ideology. Granted, Stormfront appears to be totally dead at this point, but is her ideology?

Unfortunately, not. We also know that Stormfront had plenty of supporters and that Homelander is capable of gaining their support.

This angle has been only hinted at before, but Vought is no doubt powerful enough to start merging with the government and attacking dissent more forcefully, even against the general public.

4. Lampooning moral panics related to the “Silver Age of comics”

This is just a guess, but the question for me is, “Why wouldn’t The Boys go in this direction?” In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published his book “Seduction of the Innocent,” which sought to establish a link between juvenile delinquency and crime.

This book was successful enough to create a public demand for censorship of comic books (and other materials) and a U.S. Congressional inquiry. If you look at the moral panics happening even today and the issues raised by Wertham, they would fit perfectly into future episodes of The Boys.

“Seduction of the Innocent” criticized comic book depictions of violence, sex, and drug use. Regarding Superman, Wertham wrote in the book: “Actually, Superman (with the big S on his uniform — we should, I suppose, be thankful that it is not an SS) needs an endless stream of ever new submen, criminals and ‘foreign-looking’ people not only to justify his existence but even to make it possible.”

In fact, one of the creators of Superman was involved in a fetish comic called “Nights of Horror,” which Wertham and others tried to blame for the violent crime spree of The Brooklyn Thrill Kill Gang. Given the many issues involved here, it seems The Boys would be foolish to not explore this angle in future seasons!

3. Butcher the bad guy [w/Spoiler Alert!]

Though I have not read the comic book series, I am aware that Billy Butcher becomes more of an overt villain. Still, even putting that knowledge aside, the TV series strongly suggests Butcher’s villainous potential already.

Has there been a single episode hiding that Billy has the gift to become a supervillain? Every new path for him is a crossroads, and he has to come to terms with his new life every other episode because there are so many new problems, curveballs, and complex alliances (however temporary).

His hatred of supes has also made clear his parallels with the hateful, tortured nature of Homelander’s and Stormfront’s ideologies. That being said, because the series deviates from the comic book, it seems plausible that Billy Butcher could have some non-villainous surprises as well.

He is, after all, a complex character with deeper motives than he lets on. The question is, are the complexities of his motives deeper than his underlying prejudices?

Also, with young Ryan being almost like a son, Butcher might have yet another reason to augment his hatred of supes. Still, Butcher can be a bad guy, and it’s really a matter of how bad he can get.

2. Entirely Vought-centric episodes

While most of the story focuses on the lives of The Boys, it does occasionally focus on the superheroes who are employed by Vought. Therefore, one might reasonably expect increased attention on Homelander, the supes, and Vought in the future.

That’s it; that’s the prediction. This is in the #2 slot because, interestingly enough, the series has thus far, shied away from having a Walking Dead-style sole character study episode.

Still, it seems highly plausible we’ll get an entire episode (or more) devoted solely to Vought and the supes eventually.

1.  More focus on far-right extremism

To any far-right extremists reading this, be aware that The Boys will undeniably intensify its focus on extremist groups, conspiracy theories, mob mentality, neo-fascist talking points, and theocratic ideologues who view their misdeeds as necessary in a conflict between Earth and Hell. Stormfront already made clear her intentions of crafting an all-new world with people like herself dominating.

Also, as season 3 ended, it became clearer that Stormfront supporters are latching onto Homelander, who can now freely commit atrocities out in the open. Frankly, this prediction has zero chance of being incorrect, as these themes have been prevalent throughout the series’ run.

However, what will become clearer is just how much is at stake when it comes to thwarting these extremist elements, and how these movements have become normalized (in the show and in reality). The Boys‘ social commentary will become harder to miss as the story moves forward, and the parallels between itself and stories in real-life news and media will become perhaps painfully obvious.

What are your thoughts on these predictions for The Boys? Let us know in the comments!