“I look back at my life…and all I see…are the masses I made.”
And boy, did we love those masses. These words, uttered by leader of the eponymous ragtag group of vigilantes, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), begin the full trailer for the upcoming season 4 of Prime Video’s smash superhero satire “The Boys”. What follows is a rousing montage of teams getting back together, new supes joining the fray, new monsters revealing themselves, chickens flying out of chests, and bloody sheep being torn apart mid-air all juxtaposed against inspirational speeches and quotes from Butcher, Homelander, and the rest of the gang of fucked-up folks trying to save humanity in their own ways.
Coming on the heels of the series’ breakout spin-off “Gen V”, this latest season of “The Boys” looks to be incorporating characters old and new. One figure who hasn’t shown up in either series though is the character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Though it’s still unclear what his role may be, in the trailer, he’s seen speaking to Butcher saying, “We need someone like you, Billy. Before the supes start rounding us up and dumping us off in camps.”
This line alone has echoes of national and international conflicts past and present, so it will be interesting to see how Morgan’s character fits into the universe and speaks to current anxieties held by viewers. “The Boys” has always been able to satirize America’s worldview with a pretty scathing bite. The most recent example came in last season’s skewering of “bro culture”, which ended with Homelander murdering a heckler in front of a large crowd, much to their delight. In watching this, it was hard not to think of the infamous Trump quote from 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
“This country is corrupt beyond repair…so we gotta save it,” says a self-assured Homelander at one point in the trailer, adding, “It’s not gonna be easy, we’ll have to do some terrible things…for the greater good.”
With this line, the sense that “The Boys” may be the most socially relevant television series out there currently becomes more and more apparent. The trailer also sees Homelander digging into his fatherly responsibilities, with his son Ryan starting to show off the violent side of his own abilities and Butcher seemingly wishing he could change him. Will he be able to? Find out on June 13, when the entire season 4 drops on Prime Video, but for now, enjoy the trailer below.
