7 Theories About Where The Boys Season 3 Is Almost Certainly Headed

Season 2 of Amazon’s The Boys ends with not just one bang, but multiple bangs in the end — and some of those bangs are exploding heads, but you know what, that’s neither here nor there right now.  The end of episode 8 wraps up the main storyline for the season, bringing an end to Stormfront (Aya Cash) and her white supremacist, radicalized ideas at the hands of none other than Homelander’s (Antony Starr) son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). The kiddo's got his own set of laser eyes, and unfortunately, in turning Stormfront into a literal limbless stump, the untrained young supe also accidentally kills his mother, Becca (Shantel VanSanten) in the process.

But, that’s far from all that happens in the finale, as the Seven reinstates two members — Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) — leaving The Deep (Chace Crawford) hanging once again. Now trying to work on the right side of the law, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) joins the Office of Supe Affairs under Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) and Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), and Hughie (Jack Quaid) joins the latter’s reelection campaign as well. And, everyone is completely unaware that Neuman is a supe herself — the supe who's actually responsible for all the exploding heads.

While a lot of loose threads are tied up at the end of the season, there are still far more questions than answers. In case you don’t know, Amazon loves The Boys just as much as we do, and has already renewed the series for season 3 (and ordered a spin-off series, too). And with all that confidence in the series, showrunner and creator Eric Kripke has already spilled a lot of information far and wide as to what happens next. And you know what that means: There are a lot of good theories out there already...

If you think you saw Stormfront die at the end of season 2, think again. Yes, little Ryan managed to destroy her with his laser eyes, but he didn’t completely finish the job. She’s now — for lack of any better expression — a stump clinging to life. Showrunner Eric Kripke told Entertainment Weekly that planning for season 2, “Among the writers and talking with Aya, we're like, 'Well, what is going to happen to Stumpfront?' So we’ll see.” Cash echoes this in her EW interview, explaining, “I think they've left the door open, but I also feel like there's not much left of her. She's not technically dead, but I think you'll just have to see season 3 to find out what happened to her, [or] if she's going to be around at all in her smaller form.” 

The ending of season 2 reveals who was behind those exploding heads: Congresswoman Victoria Neuman. Turns out the woman trying to regulate supes is a supe herself. She’s also an incredibly dangerous one, considering the exploding head thing, so we should be a little bit worried about her rising in the ranks. There’s a character in the comics named Vic Neuman, and though the one on the show is different, they still deal with a lot of seedy politics. “We’re signaling that we also have a corrupt politician who is going to lead us into some of the seedier sides of politics as the show proceeds. She’s still just a junior Congresswoman so I think a presidential run is a little far. But we might be heading somewhere in that direction,” Kripke told Collider. 

If you're interested in presumed dead characters who may not stay so dead, what about Lamplighter? His introduction mid-way through season 2 was incredibly brief, as we had only barely gotten to know him when he set himself on fire on the 99th floor of Vought International. Following that episode, Kripke told TVLine that he regretted killing off the character so quickly... so why not bring him back? In the comics Lamplighter has had many brushes with death and near death experiences, and actually even died once. But then, he was brought back to life and kept as a zombie at Vought. What’s to stop The Boys from pulling a little inspo from that comic-bound storyline? 

Remember Cindy (Ess Hödlmoser), the super tough, blad supe that everyone at the secret Vought supe facility was scared of? She is as close to indestructible as you can get, and also cool as all heck, and last we saw her she was hitchhiking to parts unknown. It sure felt like the show was setting up for a big return before the end of the season (all those exploding heads!) but Neuman took that spotlight. However, Cindy's time isn't necessarily over. In a Twitter chat, Kripke likened Cindy to a “landmine” that was planted and could go off at any second — confirming that the character will indeed return at some point down the road. 

Season 1 of The Boys focused on Billy Butcher trying to avenge his wife’s death and once he learned she was alive — and had a child as the result of Homelander raping her — season 2 focused on him trying to free Becca from the supe’s grasp. And at the end of the season, we know that mission is over because Becca is accidentally killed by her son, Ryan. Now Butcher has Ryan, and let’s be honest, we’re probably not going to see them become a happy family. While Butcher does accept a job with the CIA just before the season 2 credits roll, how long will he actually be able to work on the right side of the law? In the comics, he eventually goes mad, reveals himself to be a Big Bad after all, and kills some of his own Boys. If he’s still reeling from Becca’s untimely death and starts going down the wrong path, this might come into play in season 3. 

As if things weren't already tense enough between these two, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) ended the second season by blackmailing Homelander to let Ryan and Butcher go using the footage of the downed airplane from season 1. These two have always been at odds for a while now, but things will have to change now that Maeve has unleashed her rage and officially has the upper hand on the leader of the Seven. This show is about supes abusing power, so might we see Maeve ride her leverage all the way to the top? And at this point, would Homelander even care?

Additionally, season 3 is set to introduce another new superhero, Soldier Boy, played by Jensen Ackles. He's a character pulled right from the comics, is supposedly the original super in the world of The Boys, who heads up his own team. Kripke alluded to Soldier Boy in his EW cover story, suggesting that this old timey superhero from the "good ol' days" would help the series explore the incredibly flawed idea that America has a supposedly "great" time to go back to. It sure feels like season 2's "I can do whatever I want" scene was setting up Homelander to go rogue... and maybe find a new group of supes to work with. And we've seen how easily Homelander falls in with the wrong crowd thanks to Stormfront. With Soldier Boy coming into the mix, we could see some new leadership in the Seven, or, perhaps more interestingly, a new supe team in the murky mix. Things can only going to get more intense from here.