The Boys Season 5 Has Killed A Major Player – The Actor Tells Us All About It [Exclusive]

Spoilers for "The Boys" season 5 episode 1 follow.

"The Boys" star Karl Urban has previously teased (while talking to Variety) that there would be "fatalities from the get-go" in season 5. The season premiere, "Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite," reveals the first major fatality: speedster supe A-Train/Reggie Franklin (Jessie T. Usher).

I got to speak to Usher about the ending of A-Train's redemption arc. Back in the very first episode, A-Train carelessly ran through Hughie's (Jack Quaid) girlfriend Robin (Jess Salgueiro). After almost three seasons as a villain, A-Train finally started doing some self-reflection in season 3 and even apologized to Hughie in the episode "Herogasm." 

"The Boys" season 4 carried through A-Train's redemption arc, and it culminates here. In "Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite," A-Train sacrifices himself to save the Boys (especially Hughie) from Homelander (Antony Starr). As he's running away from Homelander, a woman steps into the street. A-Train dives out of the way to avoid hitting her, a direct flip of Robin's death. He trips, slams against a tree, and Homelander catches him. Even when no-one was watching, A-Train put someone else's life before his own.

"I do feel like [A-Train has] redeemed himself. He's actually made a full turn. It's a full circle moment for A-Train in 5-01," said Usher, which he called "a testament to [series creator Eric Kripke] and the writers' room." He continued:

"I'm very thankful that [the writers have] taken the time and given [A-Train] these tedious moments to have truthfulness and honesty and open up to characters and just have very real, honest moments with them to where he can just come to terms with not only who he is now, but what he's done and how it's affected him and the world and the people around him."

Jessie T. Usher himself had previously expressed doubts (at Florida Supercon 2024) about whether A-Train was redeemable. So, I asked him how his views had changed (or hadn't) now that the character's arc is over.

"I think initially, when I was saying that, I truly felt that way because there were just a lot of open ends that I didn't feel like A-Train would get the opportunity to sort of tie up or a lot of truth that he wouldn't have enough time to come to terms with or admit to," Usher explained. Since then, "[A-Train has] been able to apologize to the people that he's always felt like he's needed to apologize to."

Not just Hughie, either, but also A-Train's estranged brother Nathan (Christian Keyes). The two share one last scene in "Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite," and it's clear Nathan is truly proud of how his little brother has changed. 

For Usher, a big part of A-Train's growth was fear and overcoming it:

"This is an analogy I've been making all day and I feel very strongly about it — it feels like [A-Train] was a kid who was in bed and staring at the closet, just terrified of the boogeyman for so long. And then now he's finally gotten the nerve to sort of just wake up in the middle of the night, walk over to the closet, rip open the door and face the boogeyman and just have that breath of like, 'Oh s**t, this thing is not even that scary. It's been my trenchcoat this whole time.'"

While Homelander does kill A-Train, A-Train dies laughing. "What was I so afraid of?" A-Train asks, with a mocking grin, as he calls Homelander pathetic and empty inside.

Antony Starr and Eric Kripke also sat in on my interview with Jessie T. Usher. When I asked Starr about where we find Homelander at the beginning of season 5 (on top of the world, but still unsatisfied), he specifically contrasted A-Train's growth with Homelander's lack of it.

"[Homelander] can't be happy because evolution and true change comes from within, right?" Starr noted. "The monster in the closet didn't change, but what changed was you. The change comes from within. And unfortunately for Old Homie, he doesn't have the skillset or the ability to go where he would need to go internally, which is good because it keeps him a fun bad guy."

I asked how "The Boys" has been able to keep Homelander a compelling bad guy across five seasons. Homelander's mask has been slipping across those seasons, and as it does, he gets more pathetic and laughable but also even scarier at the same time. Kripke offered some insight: 

"Both in collaboration with Ant and with the writers, we just sort of track where the character's evolving and what is his final form. Which is really this season, he has been, in your words, slowly unraveling over the seasons because the more power he accrues, the less happy he becomes. And so it becomes a vicious cycle that eventually is going to lead to breakdown, and I think that's what happens this season."

Some viewers had wondered if "The Boys" could keep Homelander around forever (including us at /Film). Now that we've reached the end, though, it's hard to imagine a show that wasn't about Homelander's gradual unraveling. Even positive character growth like A-Train's only highlights how much worse Homelander has gotten.

"The Boys" is streaming on Prime Video.