Why A-Train Was Killed in the Season 5 Premiere

(This story contains major Prime Video spoilers. the boys Season 5 Premiere, “15 inches of pure dynamite.”)

the boys The final season opened with the death of a major character, as one of The Seven was mercilessly murdered by Homelander.

In the first episode of Season 5, A-Train aka Reggie Franklin (Jessie T. Usher) died in the final moments of the episode. Homelander tracked down the Fastest Man Alive after A-Train, now with a newly developed conscience, swerved to avoid killing innocent bystanders. This is a callback to when the character accidentally killed Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) girlfriend in the series premiere. Furious at A-Train’s repeated betrayals, Homelander executed his former close associate.

series creator Eric Kripke It was previously said that the final season would feature an actual death toll, and we asked why A-Train should be the first to go.

“I was initially resistant to killing him that early,” Kripke says. The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a little scary to kill him off so quickly. We actually started following (an alternate storyline). Where is he now, what is he doing, and how can he help The Boys? — It’s not like we didn’t have it because all of that was going on. We knew he would be the first big death. At that time we were probably thinking about Episode 3.

“And it was the writers who actually campaigned for it. It’s their fault,” he continued. “They’ve had a campaign. They keep saying, ‘No one is safe and this is going to be a season where anything can happen at any time. So have some respect, put your fucking money where your mouth is and show that you’re willing to drop a major character in the first episode, because if you do that, no one will feel safe for the rest of the season.’ And I thought that was a winning argument.

“So some of the storylines we were talking about — like reuniting with his brother and starting out as a sort of Han Solo character and then actually choosing to become a hero — were these three-part arcs and we did a greatest hits version for a proper sendoff in the premiere.”

In the past, Kripke spoke to thursday About the new season His uneasy political parallels with the present moment and his anxiety about landing the show’s final episode.