‘The Boys’ Kills Off Major Character in Shocking Season 5 Premiere

The Boys‘ Season 5 premiere just proved the Prime Video series isn’t pulling its punches as it nears the end.

In the final moments of Wednesday’s first episode of The Boys‘ final season, A-Train a.k.a. Reggie Franklin (Jessie T. Usher) is mercilessly killed by Homelander (Antony Starr), who furiously chases down the Fastest Man Alive after he swerved to avoid killing an innocent bystander and murders him in cold blood as revenge for his repeated betrayals.

Usher told TVLine that his character’s death, while shocking, felt inevitable. “I felt like we were just waiting to see how it was going to happen,” the actor said in an interview published Wednesday. “He had no allies, he had no one that he can depend on or manipulate or even ask a favor from who would put their life on the line to keep things going for him. So it was a long time coming.”

Usher revealed that he actually approached The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke about A-Train’s fate at the end of Season 4, saying that he “personally [didn’t] see a reasonable way out” for his character after “every decision he made dug his hole a little bit deeper.”

“And he was like, ‘To be honest with you, I don’t know. We’re not going to deal with it in Season 4, we’re going to just deal with it in Season 5,’” Usher recalled. “In that moment, I knew that that was the start of the end.”

Despite his brutal murder, Usher said he was “happy” A-Train got to be such an integral part of the show, and that he was “able to confront his monster face to face” and “put his foot up Homelander’s ass one last time.”

As for Starr, he stood behind his character’s decision to execute his formerly close colleague to TVLine, noting, “You hire a dog, you don’t like it when he bites.”

“One thing I love about this show is that it’s never been afraid of taking big swings and risks, and unapologetically so, and [A-Train’s death] is one of those moments,” he continued. “I know certain people are not going to be happy about that, but it makes for good TV.”

The Boys premieres new episodes on Wednesdays on Prime Video.