Spoilers ahead for the series finale of The Boys, which is streaming now on Amazon.
After five seasons streaming R-Rated superhero content for those with an Amazon Prime subscription, The Boys has finally ended for good. The Boys' series finale is being debated online, as is the case when most popular shows end. One hot-button issue was Butcher's dog Terror dying (of natural causes), with creator/showrunner Eric Kripke explaining why he made that tough decision for the story of Karl Urban's character.
Eric Kripke was inspired by Breaking Bad when crafting The Boys' final season, including big character deaths that started at the Season 5 premiere. The finale saw Terror passing away peacefully in his sleep, which caused Butcher's final mental break. In a conversation with THR, Kripke addressed this plot point, saying:
I’m not passing the buck. I own that decision. But that was in the comics as well, and it had the same result — where Butcher went completely off the deep end after Terror died. I always felt like that was a perfect trigger. That dog represented the last of his humanity, and so if that dog was going to die, Butcher’s humanity was going to die with it. What I’ll tell people is that we gave Terror in the show a gentle, sweet, peaceful death, and it was not like that in the comics.
Points were made. While it's a huge risk to kill off any dog in TV and film, Kripke was thinking of the larger narrative when Terror crossed the rainbow bridge. Namely because it would be the final straw for Billy Butcher's humanity, and inspired him to try and wipe out all supes with the Godolkin virus. After being rejected by Ryan and losing his loyal companion, there was simply no more humanity left in the character, leading him to try and wipe out every superpowered person in the world.
This was fodder for one more conflict, even after Homelander was depowered and murdered. Hughie was eventually the one who had to stop Butcher, killing his friend and ally in the process. Karl Urban's character wasn't happy simply ending Homelander for good, and Hughie killed him to stop him from creating a genocide. And just like that, Butcher became the last big character death in The Boys' run on TV.
Fans were definitely not happy about seeing Terror's dead pooch body onscreen, but it definitely helped to move the series finale's story forward. In the end, most of The Boys got their happy ending, although Frenchie and Butcher didn't get to make out to see their happy ending.
The Boys is streaming in its entirety on Amazon as part of the 2026 TV schedule. As for the new spinoff Vought Rising, that's going to premiere sometime in 2027.
