The Boys S4 trailer brings us extra bloody mayhem and “Homelander on Ice”

Final summer time’s Hollywood strikes delayed quite a few releases, amongst them the fourth season of Prime Video’s The Boys. We’re longtime followers of this extremely violent, darkly humorous anti-homage to superheroes, and thus are thrilled to see there’s lastly an official trailer for S4. It is full of the bloody mayhem we have come to count on from the present, in addition to a tantalizing glimpse of the chief villain, Homelander (Antony Starr), performing in what seems to be an ice skating extravaganza.

(Spoilers for prior seasons beneath, particularly S3.)

As I’ve written beforehand, the present is predicated on the comedian e book sequence of the identical title by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The Boys is ready in a fictional universe the place superheroes are actual however are corrupted by company pursuits and a poisonous celebrity-obsessed tradition. Essentially the most elite superhero group is named the Seven, operated by the Vought Company, which created the supes with a substance referred to as Compound V. The Seven is headed up by Homelander, a violent and unstable psychopath disguised because the All-American hero. Homelander’s counterpart as the pinnacle of the titular “Boys” is Billy Butcher (Karl City), a self-appointed vigilante intent on checking the unhealthy habits of the Seven—particularly Homelander, who brutally raped Butcher’s spouse, Becca (Shantel VanSanten), unknowingly fathering a son, Ryan, within the course of..

Having found he had a son, Homelander turned Ryan towards Butcher in S2, which ended with a bloody showdown that noticed the demise of Becca in addition to the mutilation of Homelander’s supe squeeze, Stormfront (Aya Money), who turned out to be a Nazi disguised as a “patriot.” (She dedicated suicide in S3.) Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) and Starlight (Annie Moriarty) efficiently blackmailed Homelander into loosening his bullying stranglehold on the Seven. In the meantime, the federal government cleared the Boys of all wrongdoing after they had been publicly smeared as terrorists. A disillusioned Hughie (Jack Quaid) determined to attempt to struggle the Seven via politics somewhat than violence and went to work for Congressperson Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit)—however he did not know she’s truly a super-powered murderer together with her personal murderous agenda.

The third season launched us to “Payback,” the title of an earlier Vought group of superheroes, loosely primarily based on Marvel’s Avengers. Payback members embody Eagle the Archer (Langston Kerman), who appeared in S2 of The Boys . He is the one who recruited the Deep (Chace Crawford) and A-Practice (Jessie T. Usher) to the Church of the Collective earlier than the cult turned towards him. By S3 he’d stop the superhero gig and was making an attempt to change into a rapper. We additionally met Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Crimson Countess (Laurie Holden), and a complete episode was dedicated to one of many comedian’s most stunning storylines: Herogasm, by which the Boys infiltrated Vought’s annual superhero occasion, which turned out to be only one lengthy weekend of kinky intercourse and drug use on a secluded island.

The third season ended with Homelander killing considered one of Starlight’s supporters who attacked Ryan throughout a rally—and somewhat than being roundly condemned, the gang cheered wildly, and Homelander realized simply how few constraints there have been on his psychopathic habits. Soldier Boy (who turned out to be Homelander’s organic father) ended up in authorities custody, Maeve was presumed useless however truly simply misplaced her powers, and Annie/Starlight left the Seven to affix forces with The Boys. As for Butcher, he had been juicing with V24, a model of Compound V that briefly gave people tremendous powers—at a value. By season’s finish, Butcher realized he was dying.

That brings us to the fourth season. Per the official premise:

The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is nearer than ever to the Oval Workplace and beneath the muscly thumb of Homelander, who’s consolidating his energy. Butcher, with solely months to dwell, has misplaced Becca’s son and his job as The Boys’ chief. The remainder of the staff are fed up together with his lies. With the stakes increased than ever, they must discover a solution to work collectively and save the world earlier than it’s too late.

The trailer opens with a presumably doomed Butcher doing a little soul-searching about how he is lived his life. “All I see are the messes I’ve made,” he says whereas we’re proven the scene the place Ryan leaves with a smirking Homelander. “And I ain’t acquired time to repair it.”  He figures he has an opportunity to do one factor proper however he wants The Boys’ assist to succeed.

In the meantime, Homelander is flaunting his energy, insisting that the nation “is corrupt past restore.” His plans for the nation’s “salvation” naturally contain violence: doing horrible issues “for the larger good.” So the Seven should now cease being beloved celebrities and as an alternative change into “wrathful gods.” Not everyone seems to be on board with Homelander’s technique, notably A-Practice and Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), however there’s not a lot they’ll do to cease the Supes from rounding up any recalcitrant people and placing them in camps—or declaring “searching season on Starlighters.”

Humanity’s solely hope seems to relaxation in Butcher’s discovery of a virus that may kill Supes, first launched within the spinoff sequence, Gen V. However first they will must struggle off violent superpowered chickens and livestock which were injected with Compound V—and in some way keep away from turning into the very evil they’re making an attempt to defeat.

The primary three episodes of The Boys S4 premieres on June 13, 2024, on Prime Video, with subsequent episodes airing every week till the finale on July 18, 2024.

Itemizing picture by Prime Video