Gen V Showrunner Breaks Down the Deadly Season 1 Finale and Those Wild Cameos

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Gen V Episode 8. Read at your own risk!]

Across its first even episodes, Gen V treated us to a handful of The Boys cameos. It didn't take long for Colbie Minifie's Ashley or Chace Crawford's The Deep to show up in the college-set spin-off, and Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy also made an appearance in Gen V's Episode 5. In the Prime Video drama's finale, both Homelander (Antony Starr) and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) entered the picture — separately. Their appearances pose serious questions about how the events that transpired in Gen V will affect what's next in The Boys Season 4.

Homelander made a dramatic entrance in the middle of the massacre at Godolkin University, where Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) led a charge killing every non-supe in sight. Marie (Jaz Sinclair) was attempting to stop the bloodshed, but as soon as Homelander arrived he pinned her as the offender and attacked the student. Marie survived his laser beams, but at the end of the episode was trapped in a room with Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh), Andre (Chance Perdomo), and Emma (Lizze Broadway) — and framed for the murders on campus. 

Meanwhile, Butcher appeared in a mid-credits scene. He's walking in The Woods, and it's safe to assume that he's been informed of the virus that Shetty (Shelley Conn) and Dr. Cardosa (Marcos Pigossi) were working on. And if you needed a reminder, Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is currently in possession of whatever contagion the lab had conjured. 

All of these events left many questions to be answered, and we asked them to none other than Gen V showrunner Michele Fazekas. Over Zoom, she discussed Homelander and Butcher's cameos, what the evolution of Marie and Emma's powers mean for them, and whether fans should watch Gen V before The Boys Season 4's release.

I first have to ask. Why is the finale only 39 minutes long (including credits)? It's the shortest this season. 
Michele Fazekas: [Showrunner] Eric Kripke has a really great philosophy which is, just show the A-game. So if a scene didn't turn out as we liked or if we didn't get enough footage, we cut together the best show that we want. And the nice thing about streaming is you don't have to fill a certain amount of time. Sort of the logistics of it too are we write a little bit shorter scripts than The Boys because we have fewer days to shoot than The Boys so we can't really shoot as many days, we're going to hopefully get more days in the second season. But logistically, sometimes that'll happen but it wasn't on purpose. I think when you're happy with the end product, it's like, let it be what it is, don't try and load it with scenes that aren't working.

It was definitely a very action-packed finale. I of course also must ask about Homelander's cameo. Did he intend to kill Marie?
Fazekas: I don't know that he thought it through, I think he was just pissed off. He would have been okay if she died, he's okay that she didn't. He just wanted to prove a point — I want to scare somebody, so I will.

We see Marie use her powers in new ways in the finale, including blowing up Cate's hand. What can you say about similarities and differences between her powers and Neuman's?
Fazekas: What is great is Neuman shows her [they] have really similar powers. What I think we should know about Marie is Marie has not, and Cardosa says this before he's killed, she does not know the full extent of her power. And I think we don't either.

We as in, the writers?
Fazekas: No, we as the viewers. I know. I do know, actually.

We also see Emma access her ability to turn small differently. What does this mean for her going forward?
Fazekas: I like this notion of their powers always evolving and sort of leveling up. And so the fact that she can access her powers without purging or binging is on one level really amazing because you would think oh, great, so she doesn't have to do that. But also [turning small after talking to Sam] wasn't in her control. That just happened, and it happened because of her emotional state. I think it's going to be can she separate an eating disorder from the powers? Does the eating disorder exist independent of the powers? I think those are going to be questions that she's going to have to be grappling with.

Would you say the scene suggests that how she accesses her power is primarily tied to her emotions? 
Fazekas: Yeah, I think that's the evolution — where she was made to feel small, so she became small. And then the question is, is the reverse possible? Maybe. And then it's like, even as a super-abled human being, it's almost impossible to — you're not a robot, you can't control your emotions. So what does that mean?

I'm definitely excited to see where she goes next. Something else I wanted to ask about is, fans of The Boys have learned not to become too emotionally attached to the characters because deaths happen regularly. What were conversations like about killing off one of the main supes in the finale?
Fazekas: Evan Goldberg [executive producer] will always be like, we should kill half of them. Who are we killing? You're right in that anyone's number could be up at any time, but you never just want to be cavalier about it. I almost feel like a character death that has to be the logical conclusion of their story arc, you can't just kill them to have someone die. The end of the pilot, when Golden Boy dies, there was no other ending for him. It really has to come from the story and the character and you can't just be like oh, we need something to happen, let's kill someone.

On that note, Shetty's death was also major. Can I ask if she actually is dead?
Fazekas: No you can't.

Had to try. We also see Butcher make a cameo in this episode. How would you say his beliefs are different from or similar to Shetty's?
Fazekas: I've been with Eric when we talked about this. What Eric has said is Shetty and Butcher would be pals, they would be having sex. And they're very obviously super different, but I think they have a real similar thread of just wanting to destroy superheroes. And a really good reason for wanting to, they've experienced tremendous loss.

Finally, what would you say to the fans who are asking, do you have to watch Gen V before watching The Boys Season 4? 
Fazekas: You don't. There's definitely a payoff for you if you do, and there's threads that connect the shows in a really nice, elegant way. But both Eric and I are really adamant that either show can be enjoyed independent of the other.

All episodes of Gen V Season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video.