How Trump's Assassination Attempt Changed The Boys Season 4 Finale

Contains spoilers for "The Boys" Season 4, Episode 8, "Season Four Finale"

Amazon Prime Video's satirical superhero series "The Boys" has had many fans worried about its copious use of shock value tactics in Season 4, which are high even by the show's own standards. Some even feel that the audience reactions prove that the big announcement of "The Boys" Season 5 being the series' swan song is the correct call. Now, one particular real-life event has forced "The Boys" to address some of its more controversial subject matter by changing the season finale's title to "Season Four Finale." The company also added a "viewer discretion advised" warning text before the episode kicks off and posted a statement about its content.

"The season finale of 'The Boys' contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump," Amazon's Instagram statement reads. "'The Boys' is a fictitious series that was filmed in 2023, and any scene or plotline similarities to these real-world events are coincidental and unintentional. Amazon, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of 'The Boys' reject, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind."

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania happened at a bad time for Season 4's finale. The episode not only features the graphic death of Vice President Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), but its original title was "Assassination Run." Add to this that "The Boys" has openly dunked on Trump before, and the finale ends with the show's resident Trump expy Homelander (Antony Starr) taking over and declaring martial law, and it's not a massive surprise Amazon wanted to add some asterisks to the situation.

A rogue Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) killing the vice president and Homelander performing what effectively amounts to a coup are rather extreme examples of a show's themes flying a little bit too close to the real-life assassination attempt of a former president. Even so, it's worth noting that Amazon isn't the only company that's had to make last-minute programming changes after news of the Pennsylvania shooting broke.

In the U.K., the Channel 4 TV network decided to remove "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa the Iconoclast" from its July 14 lineup. The episode features no less than two awkward moments that are just a little too similar to the Trump assassination attempt. First, Springfield founder Jebediah Springfield (Harry Shearer) attempts to kill George Washington, and then a sniper nearly shoots Lisa Simpson (Yardley Smith) onstage. In addition to this, investment company BlackRock pulled a TV commercial that Trump's attempted assailant, Thomas Matthew Crooks, happened to appear in.

While Amazon isn't the only one playing it safe in the wake of the July 13 shooting attempt, "The Boys" may be more openly intertwined with commentary on Trump and his ongoing political legacy than any other show. In fact, showrunner Eric Kripke has made it clear that the former president is one of the show's primary targets. "[Homelander's] issues just happened to reflect the guy who, it's just still surreal to say it, was f****** president of the United States," Kripke told Rolling Stone in 2022. "And it's a bigger issue than just Trump. The more awful public figures act, the more fans they seem to be getting. That's a phenomenon that we wanted to explore, that Homelander is realizing that he can actually show them who he really is and they'll love him for it."