Eric Kripke Explains A-Train’s Early Death in The Boys Final Season

The Boys creator Eric Kripke has explained the decision to kill a major character early in the show’s fifth and final season.

In the opening episode, A-Train, played by Jessie T. Usher, is killed by Homelander in the final moments, marking one of the most significant deaths in the series.

Kripke said the decision was not part of the initial plan. “I was initially resistant to killing him off that early,” Kripke tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a little scary to kill him off so soon. We had actually broken out [an alternate storyline] that was like: Where is he now, what is he doing, and how can he help The Boys? — all that stuff was in process, so it’s not like we didn’t have it. We knew that he was going to be the first big death. At the time, I think we were thinking maybe episode three.”

He added that the writers pushed for the early twist. “And it was the writers who really campaigned for it — it’s their fault,” he continued. “They campaigned. They were like, ‘You keep saying that nobody’s safe, and that it’s going to be a season where anything can happen at any time. So with all due respect, put your fucking money where your mouth is and show that you’re willing to drop a major character in the first episode. Because if you do that, then for the rest of the season, no one is going to feel safe.’ And I thought it was a winning argument.”

Kripke said earlier story arcs for A-Train were condensed to fit the premiere. “So some of the storylines we were talking about — like reuniting with his brother and really choosing to be a hero after starting out as kind of Han Solo character — were this three-episode arc, and we did the greatest hits version to get it down to an appropriate sendoff in the premiere.”

The final season of The Boys is expected to feature multiple character deaths, with Kripke earlier indicating that the narrative would carry higher stakes and unpredictability.