"He’s seemingly immune to this virus": Eric Kripke discusses The Boys Season 5's virus plotline

The Boys Season 5 premiered this week with not one, but two episodes. After that, the series will follow a weekly release strategy. The second episode mostly revolves around The Boys trying to kill Rock-Hard, a member of the young superhero team, Teenage Kix. However, the plan falls apart, and The Boys improvise their plan and infect two Teenage Kix members and even Soldier Boy.

The Boys watch Soldier Boy, and the other two heroes die, but there's more to this than what The Boys saw. Homelander is shocked to see his father's body, and he has a breakdown. As the leader turns his back on Soldier Boy's body, he rises from the dead, ending the second episode of The Boys Season 5.

This revelation suggests that the virus could work differently for different supes. Showrunner Eric Kripke addressed what Soldier Boy's survival meant going forward for The Boys Season 5 in a TVInsider interview:

"Yes, it is true that Soldier Boy is not dead, and the reasons that he’s seemingly immune to this virus are what really set up the primary MacGuffin of the season. It really turns everything on its head. Suddenly, there is a way to survive the virus, and so it becomes a race of who acquires it. If Homelander acquires it, it’s game over. If The Boys acquire it, then maybe the people that they love can survive, and so everyone’s battling for the future. Can they survive this war? Can they survive this particular virus? And this storyline becomes a big driver of the season."

Soldier Boy's survival in The Boys Season 5 suggests that the virus might work differently for different supes:

Until the second episode, fans thought that the virus would instantly kill off every supe. But The Boys Season 5 Episode 2 confirmed that's not the case as Soldier Boy wakes up. The trailers also feature Soldier Boy in several scenes; therefore, it is not surprising that Soldier Boy survived getting infected in the second episode. However, his survival does set up an important plotline for The Boys Season 5: Homelander's aim to be immortal.

The final trailer of The Boys Season 5 reveals that Homelander wants to get his hands on V1, i.e., the first version of Compound V. Soldier Boy was injected with V1; Therefore, it seems that this allowed him to survive the infection. Homelander, learning about this, would want to become an immortal and even attain divine status. Even Karl Urban alluded to this in a December 2025 interview:

"At the beginning of the season, Homelander's goal is to become a god. He's going to rule the world & the only people that can stop him are Butcher and The Boys. However, The Boys are in prison. So, first of all, we need to get the gang back together. And then, we spend the whole season trying to stop Homelander. You're in for a crazy, wild, fun ride. Let me tell you, nobody is safe. Nobody. It's going to be fun."

Therefore, it seems that our heroes are on a race against time throughout the rest of The Boys Season 5 to perfect the virus before Homelander injects himself with V1. Eric Kripke also addressed Homelander's arc in this season in the TVInsider interview:

"It’s more about how, as Sage says to him, “Whatever power you accrue, it’s still not going to make you happy.” And so we find Homelander begin the season, having achieved the upper echelon of power. There’s no more powerful person on the planet than what this guy has achieved, and he’s still miserable. And so he always thinks, well, if I can make it to the next step, then I’ll finally be happy, not understanding that what he needs to do is look inside at the gaping vacant void that is his soul, but he doesn’t; he is unable to see that. The next step of power is as some kind of deity, and that really gets fleshed out in upcoming episodes, but Homelander for seasons now has been talking about himself as if he’s a god, and we tried to make good on that in our insane Boysian way. We have different targets in different seasons. Season 4, elections were a big target, white nationalism in Season 2, so in Season 5, we are taking quite a big fat shot at Christian nationalism, and this idea that Christianity should make you supportive of violent and occasionally racist policies, which run against everything that Christianity stands for. The fact that politicians are saying that Jesus is blessing this administration with a straight face is something that we really wanted to take a shot at."

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Watch the first two episodes of The Boys Season 5 if you haven't already.

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