Eric Kripke explains why he's ending The Boys after five seasons

Whenever a show is coming to an end, fans want to know why. That was certainly the case when we learned The Boys will end with Season 5.

It was quickly made clear that this wasn’t an Amazon decision. This was Eric Kripke’s preference. He had long said that he had planned out a five-season series, but he played coy whenever the topic came up. He had to wait for the approval from Amazon when it came to confirming the vision.

Not the first time Eric Kripke planned five seasons

The Boys is not the first five-season series Eric Kripke has planned. Supernatural also had that plan, and you can see how the first five seasons connect. There was plenty of foreshadowing leading up to “Swan Song.”

Kripke stepped away from the day-to-day running of the series after five seasons, despite The CW renewing it. Robert Singer and Sera Gamble took over for two seasons with Kripke being a consultant on the series. Then in Season 8, Kripke no longer showed up as a consultant in the credits.

The series would go on to run for 10 seasons after the original five that were planned. They weren’t as intricately connected as the first five seasons were, showing clearly what the plan was. However, the series remains popular with the fanbase.

Now Kripke has The Boys, which is another five-season planned series. What is it with Kripke and five seasons?

Five seasons follows the TV acts in The Boys, Supernatural, and more

Kripke shared with Deadline that it all comes down to him working in TV and the way TV shows have five acts. That’s the way he’s used to planning each episode, and it works in season planning as well.

"I would speculate that like I was trained on five acts as a television writer. So, it just makes sense to me have enough time to really get to know the characters but not so long that you wear out your welcome."

Five seasons is enough time to get to know characters. However, those characters don’t start to wear out their welcome. People don’t get bored of the shows as much. In fact, the shows tend to end on a high, making people want more. That’s the way you want a series to come to an end rather than people just waiting for a cancellation.

Kripke also likened the development in movie terms. Season 4 is a lot like Act 2 of a movie. This is when the characters are figuring themselves out and dealing with the mess of the past. We’re seeing that happen with each of the characters in The Boys so far, meaning Season 5 will be the big finish and potentially hope for the future. Considering Supernatural was originally likely to end with both Sam and Dean ending up in the pit, that hope is debatable.