‘Gen V’ Season 2 Is Coming—But ‘The Boys’ Will Return First

The following story contains spoilers for the Gen V Season 1 finale.

TO SAY THAT television spinoffs don't always work would be putting it nicely. Sure, sometimes Cheers leads to Frasier, The Practice leads to Boston Legal, or Breaking Bad leads to Better Call Saul, but far more often you'll find that something like Friends tends to lead into something like Joey. (Don't remember Joey? Exactly.)

Luckily, for fans of The Boys, Gen V fit into the former grouping from its blood-filled get-go. With a tone and story that easily matches the X-rated energy of the flagship original show (and a game team of producers that includes The Boys head man Eric Kripke), the show didn't miss a beat for fans looking for a chaotic and hilarious story nonetheless focused on characters that audiences learn to love and care about.

Gen V holds an ensemble cast that puts its primary focus on a group of young superpowered people looking to find their place in the world. Those are pretty well-treaded waters for the superhero/comic book genre (X-Men, Umbrella Academy, Invincible find themselves in a similar place just to name a few), but with a charismatic and game cast of characters, Gen V found itself comfortable and at ease to tell a story that's just as good at fitting into the superhero genre as it is at satirizing it.

Season 1 of the show concludes with our lead characters split—Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Emma (Lizze Broadway), Andre (Chance Perdomo), and Jordan (Derek Luh/London Thor) have found themselves labeled public violent menaces, while the real perpetrators, Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) have been labeled heroes. There's a mess, and whether it's addressed in The Boys Season 4 (which has already been filmed) or Gen V Season 2 (which has already been ordered), one thing's for sure—we won't have to wait too long for some answers.

Here's what we know about Gen V Season 2 and more.

Gen V has already been renewed for Season 2

On October 19, 2023, before Gen V's first season was even over, the show was officially renewed for Season 2.

When will Gen V Season 2 come out?

While Gen V has, indeed, been renewed for a Season 2, when that Season 2 comes out on Prime Video is much more of a question. There's a world where we get Gen V around the same time next year—Fall/Winter 2024. But that would require that the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike wraps up relatively soon.

The other ripple in this, though, is The Boys Season 4, which has been already filmed and is expected to come out in 2024 (more on that below). If you follow the pattern of The Boys releasing in 2022, Gen V releasing in 2023, and The Boys releasing again in 2024, it's possible that Prime Video could hold off on releasing Gen V until 2025 if that's what they deem to be the best choice.

The Gen V Season 1 finale directly tees up The Boys Season 4—which has already been filmed and will come first

Anyone who saw how Gen V ended knows that there are some major implications on the state of The Boys universe: in addition to a coming presidential election, Homelander being (presumably) on trial for murdering a protestor with his heat vision, and the ongoing efforts of The Boys to take down Vought, we're also now on the cusp of a full-on Supes vs. Humans war. Thanks a lot to Cate and Sam on that one. We also know that Victoria Neuman now has a supe-killing virus that cannot be replicated in her possession, so that's some thing to keep n mind as well.

But the most important part to take away from Gen V in the lead-up to The Boys Season 4 (which has already been filmed and will release at some point in 2024) is the finale's post-credits scene, which finds Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) finding The Woods, and, presumably, figuring out what's been going on in The Woods.

"I would say the Butcher cameo is more than anything else what sets up Season 4 [of The Boys." creator Eric Kripke said in an interview with Men's Health. "Butcher, heading into Season 4, is well aware that there's this virus out there that can kill superheroes. So, we wanted to see the ground zero of that moment, which is what we did in the very, very last moments of this season of Gen V."

Kripke also told Variety that the events of The Boys Season 4 take place only a couple of days after the events of the Gen V Season 1 finale:

However, it's also worth noting that the intention from the powers that be is that while Gen V and The Boys exist hand-in-hand with one another, it's not necessary to watch one to enjoy the other.

"I think a lot of things in Gen V set the table for Season 4, and I think we're trying to keep with the same rules that we kept for Gen V—it would be helpful to see Gen V to understand Season 4, and provide a little more context and a little more depth. But it's by no means necessary," Kripke told Men's Health. "If you just want to watch The Boys without watching Gen V, that's great, if you want to watch Gen V without watching The Boys, that's great too. If not both of these shows, we just want you watching one of them, and not have it feel like homework."

Who will be in the Gen V Season 2 cast?

Barring any seismic events in The Boys Season 4, we should expect all of our Gen V friends back for the next season: Jaz Sinclair (as Marie), Lizze Broadway (as Emma), Chance Perdomo (as Andre), London Thor and Derek Luh (as Jordan), Maddie Phillips (as Cate), and Asa Germann (as Sam). We'd also expect to see more of Patrick Schwarzenegger (as Luke/Golden Boy) in a recurring capacity in flashbacks and dream sequences.

We'd also expect to continue the cameos from The Boys that keep the worlds so strongly connected; Season 1 saw Antony Starr (Homelander), Karl Urban (Butcher), Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy), Claudia Doumit (Victoria Neuman), and Colby Minifie (Ashley) among others, so perhaps in Season 2 we could see some other friends from the world of the Boys.

What could Gen V Season 2 be about?

It will likely depend on how The Boys Season 4 plays out. But it seems like the basis of Gen V Season 2 will likely pick up with the realization that Godolkin University was never intended as a place for education at all—it was always a veiled and glorified science lab meant to take advantage of its students.

We're also, of course, going to have to deal with the aftermath of four heroes being locked up and two antagonists being hailed publicly as heroes. Major problem! And one that we'll likely see dealt with in Season 2.

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