After what was a solid – albeit occasionally uneven – season of television, Prime Video’s acclaimed hit show The Boys concluded its penultimate fourth season with one of the series’ best finales, leaving audiences with one hell of a cliff hanger as the titular group are likely winding up in a detention camp set up by (President?) Homelander…apart from Butcher of course. Although the fifth and final season requires yet another long wait until its release in 2026, we will at least be treated to the second season of its outstanding spinoff show, Gen V.
Largely shot at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, Gen V centers on Godolkin University School of Crimefighting, attended by superpowered youths in the hopes of becoming a superhero in the vein of the members of The Seven (if only they knew!). A very eventful season of television concluded with a rift between the central characters, as Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo), Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh), and Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway) battle their one-time allies Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann), who go on a murderous spree killing any non-supes on campus. Marie used her hemokinetic ability to blow up the hand of the duplicitous Cate before she can use her own power of influence on Jordan, but the fight is then broken up by a cameo from Homelander, who chastises Marie for “attacking [her] own kind” before blasting her with his laser eyes. Next thing she knows, she’s locked up in a hospital with the rest of her remaining allies.
There were brief cameos from Cate and Sam in The Boys’ fourth season, but we don’t know what has happened to the other main characters locked in the hospital, though it has at least been confirmed that the second season of Gen V will take place only a few days after The Boys’ finale, so they have not been there long, at least for the first episode.
Regarding the cast, all actors who survived the first season will return once again, but with the notable exception of the talented Chance Perdomo, who tragically died from a motorcycle accident in upstate New York last year, making his way to Toronto to begin shooting the next season of Gen V, no less. Recasting his role was considered but ultimately rejected, not only out of respect, but also because the mark left by this talented actor was too great to allow anyone else in the shoes of Andre Anderson.
There was hope amongst fans that Patrick Schwarzenegger, who played Andre’s best friend (and Sam’s older brother) Luke, AKA Golden Boy, would once again return, but this is sadly not the case. Although his character died in the very first episode it was thought he could once again appear as a projection of Sam’s conscience, but the up-and-coming actor was filming the newly released third season of The White Lotus and has confirmed that he was unable to appear in the upcoming season of Gen V due to the resulting scheduling conflicts.
Nonetheless, several newcomers to the series have been announced, most noteworthy among them being Hamish Linklater, the underrated veteran character actor who truly took his career to the next level with his acclaimed performance in Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass Netflix series in 2021. Even more intriguingly, he will be playing a supe called Cipher, who is the new dean of Godolkin. He will be joined by Keeya King, Stephen Kalyn, Julia Knope, Tait Fletcher, Wyatt Dorion, Georgie Murphy, and This Hour Has 22 Minutes alum Stacey McGunnigle, though each of their respective roles have yet to be revealed. In addition to these new cast members, Chace Crawford will once again cameo as the most moronic member of The Seven, The Deep, having already appeared in the previous season.
Yet, little else is known about the narrative approach for season two. It’s as unclear as the release date, which is simply slated for release in 2025. Though, as pointed out in an article by Games Radar, if the first season is anything to go by, it should release around a year after principal photography, which makes a late-2025 release the most likely case. While the show is still in post-production, if we’re lucky we’ll get the first trailer for season two of Gen V sometime during the summer.