The Boys Theory: Stormfront Is Alive & The Next Main Villain After Homelander

There aren’t many villains worse than Homelander in The Boys. Through a toxic blend of narcissim, delusion, and breast milk, Homelander has ascended to the top of the pile when it comes to unpleasant individuals in The Boys‘ universe, but that conversation wasn’t quite so straightforward when Stormfront was around back in The Boys season 2. The character’s political leanings and thoughts on the human race were so extreme, even Homelander couldn’t get fully onboard with her plans.

The climactic battle at the end of The Boys season 2 saw Stormfront badly beaten by the trio of Queen Maeve, Starlight, and Kimiko, then sliced in half by the red-hot laser eyes of Ryan Butcher. Upon returning in season 3, Stormfront was confined to a bed, her body permanently changed by Ryan’s attack. While still capable of spouting hateful rhetoric, Stormfront found herself dismayed by Homelander’s unwillingness to fulfill that vision, and took her own life by biting through her tongue.

Homelander was, for a few minutes, a little upset by Stormfront’s death, but soon moved onto other maternal figures. Stormfront has only ever been mentioned in dialogue since, and while Aya Cash is among the cast members confirmed for upcoming spinoff Vought Rising, that series will be set in the past when she went under the superhero guise of Liberty and worked alongside other classic supes such as Soldier Boy.

In season 5, however, The Boys heavily suggests Stormfront is alive and well, setting up the possibility of her becoming the next major villain once Homelander is gone.

There Was Already Some Suspicion That Stormfront Didn’t Die

Even before season 5, theories of Stormfront’s survival were abound, largely due to the abruptness of her death and the fact it took place entirely off-screen. The episode “The Only Man in the Sky” showed Homelander visiting Stormfront’s bedside on his birthday, but getting the silent treatment as she wept in despair. Halfway into the same episode, Homelander was half-heartedly saving a woman from a rooftop when he spotted a news headline reading “Stormfront Suicide.” The channel aired footage of her body being taken away into a waiting ambulance, while Ashley confirmed the supe bit off her own tongue.

The entire situation felt odd. Why would Vought, a company notorious for manipulative PR and endless cover-ups, announce Stormfront’s death the very same day it happened, and without lying about the real cause? And while Homelander witnessed the video footage of Stormfront’s body in transit, she was completely covered from head to toe, leaving only a blood-stained bed for Homelander to return to.

While Homelander was gone, anyone could have entered that room, escaped with Stormfront, then sent out a fake body for the cameras. There was nothing in the scene to even remotely confirm Stormfront had truly died, but given her treacherous nature, plenty of reasons to suspect a conspiracy.

Talk of Stormfront’s survival died down after she failed to return in The Boys season 4, and then became even less likely when it was announced that season 5 would be the last chapter. The Boys seemed to have enough on its plate without throwing an angry extremist from WWII into the equation.

Stormfront Having V-One Makes Her Death Much Less Likely

The Boys season 5’s first clue that Stormfront is alive comes with the lore about V-One, the original formula of Compound-V running through the veins of Vought’s earliest supes. As Sister Sage explains, Stormfront (known back then as Liberty) was one of the subjects juiced with V-One.

More significantly, the biggest difference between V-One and regular Compound-V is that the former provides near-immortality. The entire reason V-One becomes the MacGuffin of The Boys season 5 is that Homelander realizes it’ll neutralize his last remaining weaknesses of aging and being susceptible to the supe virus.

It’s clear that V-One users can still be severely hurt, and the injuries Ryan left on Stormfront stand as testament to that. But if V-One can stave off time and viruses, the “bit off her own tongue” story starts to look a little farfetched. Even if Stormfront did such a thing, the V-One would be enough to prevent her dying from blood loss, judging from what we learn about the stuff in The Boys season 5.

Soldier Boy All But Confirms Stormfront Is Still Alive

The Boys season 5’s biggest clue that Stormfront is alive comes thanks to Soldier Boy. As he and Homelander walk merrily through a forest on their way to Fort Harmony, talk turns to the fate and whereabouts of Stormfront. When Homelander reveals she died, and how it happened, Soldier Boy replies, “Horsesh*t. She’d never off herself… Did you see a body?“

There’s much to unpack here. Quite apart from the V-One issue and plausibility of Stormfront dying from a tongue bite, Soldier Boy believes this is something she would never do. The Boys strongly suggests Soldier Boy and Stormfront had an intimate relationship, to the point where Soldier Boy shows genuine emotion upon hearing her name. Compared to the short time Homelander knew her, Soldier Boy would have a far better grasp on Stormfront’s personality, so his belief that she would never take her own life is certainly worth some attention.

More interesting is Soldier Boy asking, “Did you see a body?” Because Homelander certainly did not see a body.

The “they’re not dead unless you see a body” argument is a famous rule of TV, where characters who aren’t explicitly shown as deceased have a tendency to return sometime later. The Boys could simply be lampooning that trope here, just as an earlier episode this season mocked the difficulty with writing series finales. Perhaps The Boys is gently teasing the viewers who were crying “we didn’t see a body” after Stormfront’s death in season 3.

At the same time, Soldier Boy’s line highlights the strangeness that has surrounded Stormfront’s death from the very beginning. The way her body was covered up and rushed out of Vought Tower almost immediately. The unlikely story provided to explain how it happened. The fact Homelander was never given a chance to view the body and say his goodbyes. None of it quite makes sense.

What Stormfront Being Alive Could Mean For The Boys Season 5 & Beyond

In the event that The Boys reveals Stormfront survived, there are, broadly speaking, two possible outcomes for what happens next. The first is that Stormfront makes her comeback in the second half of The Boys season 5 and joins up with Homelander and Soldier Boy to create a terrible trio of tyrants. Intriguingly, Stormfront’s return could also drive a wedge between the father-son duo, since both were her love interests at various times.

Another option is that Stormfront’s return is saved for a future spinoff, and she will serve as the main antagonist in a new show that takes place after The Boys season 5. It’s even plausible that, despite being a prequel, parts of Vought Rising will be set in the present day, focusing on Stormfront’s public reemergence in the 2020s while simultaneously telling her origin story in the 1950s timeline.

Whatever comes next, there’s little doubt that The Boys is dangling the prospect of another appearance from Aya Cash’s Stormfront before us. Whether the show is foreshadowing future events or just trolling everyone remains to be seen.

Release Date

2019 – 2026-00-00

Showrunner

Eric Kripke

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