The Boys season 4 will pick up "a couple of days" after the Gen V finale

We may still have a little while to wait until The Boys season 4 arrives on Prime Video – but in the world of the show, barely any time at all will have passed.

"In our minds, it’s only a couple of days after whatever the events are of Gen V," showrunner Eric Kripke said in a new interview with Variety. "We try to keep the timeline super simple because all that folding-in-on-itself timeline stuff that I think other comic book universes find themselves having to do is just bewildering for me as a viewer. So it’s all very modular.

"It’s like there’s season 3 of The Boys, and then after that Gen V takes place, and then after that The Boys season 4 takes place. And then after that, Gen V season 2 takes place. It’s all more like cars on a train than it is a plate of spaghetti."

Gen V episode 8 certainly sowed the seeds for what's to come when we return to The Boys – Homelander (Anthony Starr) and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) both made cameos in the finale, with Homelander stepping in during the carnage at Godolkin and breaking up the fight between Marie (Jaz Sinclair) and Cate (Maddie Phillips). Billy, meanwhile, was seen discovering The Woods, the lab where Dean Shetty had been working on a Supe virus and performing tests on young Supes, in the finale's post-credits scene.

The Boys season 4 doesn't have a release date yet. While we wait for Billy Butcher and co. to return to the small screen, check out our guide to the rest of the most exciting new TV shows on the way in 2023 and beyond.

For more on Gen V, check out the rest of our coverage:

• Gen V episode 8 ending explained

• Everything we know about Gen V season 2

• Where does Gen V take place on The Boys timeline?

• Gen V release schedule

• Can you watch Gen V without watching The Boys?

• A Homelander Easter egg you might have missed

• Why Jordan Li is the best superhero in years

• Gen V is at its best when the stakes are low – let's hope it doesn't lose sight of that in season 2