Do you need to watch Gen V before The Boys season 5? We asked the showrunner

The Boys regularly mocks the bloated superhero franchises DC and Marvel have created with references to the Vought Cinematic Universe and its many in-universe movies and streaming shows. But now that The Boys has two spinoffs and another on the way, showrunner Eric Kripke is making sure to avoid creating the kind of homework that has made keeping up with Marvel such a chore. That means there’s no need to watch the spinoff series Gen V ahead of The Boys season 5, even if the series does sneak in a reward for hardcore fans.

“I try to strike a balance where obviously I want you to watch them all, but I don’t want them to be required viewing,” Kripke tells Polygon.

[Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for Gen V season 2]

Two major The Boys characters, Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), showed up in season 2 of Gen V to recruit Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and her friends from Godolkin University in the fight against Homelander (Antony Starr). The college heroes don’t make an appearance in The Boys season 5 premiere, but A-Train mentions Marie has been helping their cause in the background.

“If you had never seen Gen V and never heard of those characters, you’d have been like, ‘OK, I guess they’re talking about somebody, but it’s short and contained,’” Kripke says. “If you had watched that show, you’d get a little Easter egg. I think that’s the right way to do it.”

Photo: Jasper Savage/Prime Video

Gen V season 2 revealed that Marie’s blood manipulation powers come from a project to create extremely powerful supes through IVF. She and Homelander were the only survivors of those experiments. Over the course of the season, Marie gained much better control of her abilities, using them to manipulate the blood in other people’s bodies to telekinetically move them or even induce a heart attack. All of this led to some characters speculating that Marie could be key to taking down Homelander. Kripke assured The Boys fans that won’t be the case.

“Anyone thinking that Marie Moreau is going to become the clutch player in The Boys this season is going to be disappointed,” he said. “It’s not her show. She has a show. This is another show and the boys are the heroes in this one. So characters from Gen V show up, but never in a way that you can’t just enjoy this final season on its own.”

Kripke could not confirm if Gen V is returning for a third season. The first two episodes of The Boys season 5 will premiere on Prime Video on April 8. New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays through May 20.