After seven years, the fifth and final season of The Boys has come to an end as the series finale premiered on streaming this week (meaning, spoilers will follow). As expected, there was plenty of death, destruction, and bloodshed in the last chapter, with multiple fan favorites being taken off the board in epic fashion. There were also some surprise returns for the show, with Frenchie coming back (despite dying in the last episode) for a touching moment, plus Homelander’s son Ryan had a big part to play, while Giancarlo Esposito’s Stan Edgar made a last-minute return as the CEO of Vought.
One notable absence from The Boys‘ series finale was a character that fans thought might get a surprise appearance, the show’s version of Wonder Woman, Queen Maeve, played by Dominique McElligott. Though the character has been absent since Season 3, that gap in appearances had some convinced that she might actually show up. According to series creator Erik Kripke, they considered it, but there’s a good reason it didn’t happen. “I was in conversation with Dom,” Kriple told Gold Derby. “We still email once in a while. She’s mostly retired from acting, and her schedule didn’t work out.”
Kripke further noted that the potential cameo for Queen Maeve never got further than an idea, adding: “I would have loved to have had Maeve… It was all a very friendly, non-controversial thing. I was like, ‘If we wrote it, would you do it?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m kind of out of it, and I’m busy, and unfortunately I can’t, but send everyone my love.’ That was sort of it.”
The “Previously On” recap that played ahead of The Boys‘ series finale did include Queen Maeve briefly, which may have sparked the idea for some fans that the character would return. In truth, the clip used of the character was meant to remind audiences about her conversations with Annie, which came up at a pivotal moment in the start of the episode as she shared the screen with Gen V’s Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair). The clip with Maeve was never meant to tease her return, but to set up this exchange.
McElligott’s retirement from the industry may have resulted in one of the best story decisions that The Boys couldn’t have planned for. When the character departed at the end of Season 3, she got something that was incredibly rare for the series at that point: a happy ending. Though she was officially without her powers after fighting Soldier Boy, she was able to reunite with her love interest, Elena, and escape the country. Ashley Barrett even became aware that she got away, and even deleted the footage to protect her from retaliation by Vought or Homelander.
As a result, bringing the character back for even a surprise cameo might have cheapened that ending. Maeve was able to ride off into the sunset at a point in the series when it seemed like no one would be able to do that. Even in the series finale, only a handful of characters got that conclusion; one could even argue that in death, Billy Butcher got a happy ending as he found peace in his death and was buried next to Becca. Suffice to say, leaving Maeve out of the finale was the right decision, even if it wasn’t their first choice.
