Prime Video's The Boys won’t use the comic book’s Black Noir twist

Prime Video's The Boys may fourth season is generating a lot of conversation online, and people are still watching it. The series recently returned to the Amazon streaming service and it's already No. 1 in over 100 countries (and it’s doubtful the streaming numbers will slow down). The story is too good and the acting is even better. As Bam Smack Pow writer Camila Domingues says, Antony Starr deserves an Emmy for his performance as Homelander.

Coming off Antony Starr’s brilliant performance during season 4 episode 4, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke revealed some major news on the future of Homelander and the show itself. He told Variety that the Black Noir clone storyline that takes place in the comics (in which it is revealed that Black Noir is a Homelander clone and thus is really responsible for a lot of the heinous things that take place) won’t happen. He said fans of The Boys comic book may be disappointed, but he didn’t think that twist works on the show. Kripke says:

"I’m like, if I’m going to follow this villain, I want this guy to be the villain. So I was never really into the clone idea. Plus, cloning feels like too — I’m going to sound silly — but cloning feels too magical for the show. We try to say that superheroes are the only slippery banana, and that everything else we try to make as grounded as possible."

- Eric Kripke

As a huge fan of The Boys comic book and someone who’s written that the Black Noir switch was happening, I’m not disappointed by this deviation. As Eric Kripke said, this is the right move. The Black Noir reveal may not translate as well to the screen. This is fantasy, but there are levels to what they can get away with. We’ve seen some outlandish things on The Boys but cloning is like time travel. If you don’t have to use it, don’t. It’s becoming a tired trope. And in this particular situation, it would do the character arcs a disservice.

The best part about this change is that the ending will be different. When the final episode airs (which we now know will be in season 5), fans of the source material will witness something unexpected. There’s a chance that Butcher will use the Vought’s plan to kill supes and Hughie will have to stop him. However, if the Black Noir clone storyline isn’t happening, then everything is up in the air.

When everything is said and done, we may witness the end of the world. In The Boys comics, Hughie stops Butcher from ridding the world of supes. What if Hughie fails and everyone with Compound V in their system dies? Is that a happy ending? No one dies from superpowered mistakes. But a lot of innocent people will be dead. Some of them have such a small dose in their bodies that they may not know it's there.

Here’s a scarier thought. Imagine if Homelander becomes President of the United States of America. It may not be the ending everyone wants, and it will be a bummer, but it won’t be forgotten. Stay tuned to Bam Smack Pow to find out how this story ends.

The Boys has somehow managed to get even more unpredictable, and that's a good thing!

How do you want Amazon Prime’s The Boys to end? Are you disappointed that Black Noir isn't a clone of Homelander? Let us know on the Bam Smack Pow Instagram and Twitter.