The Boys Season 4: What Happened To Queen Maeve - Is She Dead?

One of the most troubled and emotionally complex Supes in "The Boys," Queen Maeve, nee Maggie Shaw (Dominique McElligott), has been on a pretty dynamic character arc since the show's beginning. As a Supe who Vought meant to market as an archetypal feminist superhero, she often found the artifice of her highly staged and curated heroics in service of capitalism at odds with her real desire to do good. At the start of the series, she seemed resigned to her role and the authority of both Homelander (Antony Starr) and Vought. But by the end of Season 3's finale, "The Instant White-Hot Wild," Maeve's conviction that Homelander needs to die, "whatever it takes," supersedes any fear or trepidation she once had.

During the epic fight with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Homelander at the end of Season 3, Maeve grabs an exploding Soldier Boy seconds before detonation, seemingly sacrificing herself to save Annie (Erin Moriarty), Hughie (Jack Quaid), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), Butcher (Karl Urban), and his son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). Although it's later revealed that Queen Maeve has gone into hiding after surviving the blast, she is mysteriously absent from Season 4 of the wildest superhero story around. But the good news is that Maeve will definitely return in Season 5, according to showrunner Eric Kripke himself.

Like most Supes, Maeve's abilities emerge after her greedy parents dose her with Compound V as a kid — a none-too-subtle metaphor for showbiz parents sacrificing their offspring's' childhood and innocence in pursuit of a payday. But how Maeve handles it makes her a role model to Annie, who recalls Maeve breaking every bone in her right arm while saving a busload of kids, then visiting them all in physical therapy afterward to show the world that "they were heroes, too."

By the time Maeve meets Annie, Vought seems to have stripped away everything good in her, leaving Maeve feeling disillusioned and jaded as she tells Annie, "I started giving pieces of myself away and I guess I gave away everything." But meeting Annie and Hughie reminds her of who she truly is — and perhaps more importantly, who Homelander is. Up until now, she has put up with his torment. But opening her eyes to Homelander's impact on others pushes Maeve to a place where she's finished with his manipulation and control. She also realizes he's only getting worse.

After helping the Boys defeat Stormfront in Season 2, Maeve spends most of Season 3 working with them to take down Homelander for good. He catches on to her, imprisoning Maeve underneath Vought and threatening to impregnate her. After getting moved to a secondary location, Maeve escapes to M.M.'s house before confronting Soldier Boy and Homelander at Vought. Allowing the world to believe she is dead after that final showdown, Maeve flees with her girlfriend, Elena. Although she seems to have lost an eye, she appears to be on the mend when we last see her.

The conspicuous absence of Maeve in Season 4 makes it seem like actor Dominique McElligott has left the show for good. While many fans are surely grateful that Maeve has lived to fight another day, the idea that Maeve is off kicking it in her pajamas while Homelander has fully embraced his villain arc doesn't feel right. But the actor has given no indication she is done with the series. Although the now-deleted Instagram fan account VoughtHQ alleged that Antony Starr bullied McElligott so badly she chose to depart the show, the allegations seem limited to that account.

However, Eric Kripke has spoken at length about his decision to give Maeve a peaceful exit from the series — a much better ending than she gets in the comic book series the Prime Video show is adapted from. While the comics see Maeve decapitated by Homelander, Kripke felt TV Maeve deserved something a little kinder. Speaking to TVLine in 2022 about Maeve's fate in Season 3, Kripke explained, "[A]t no point did I ever consider killing Maeve, from the very, very beginning. We were intentionally building to a happy ending for her, always, for a lot of reasons."

Despite the show's dark and often twisted tone, Kripke insisted that "The Boys" is a "moral universe" where those who do good are rewarded in kind. He also wished to dodge the problematic "kill your gays" trope by giving Elena and Maeve their happy ending. "I am not going to fall into the trope of killing off gay characters," Kripke emphasized.

While her character was missing from "The Boys" Season 4, Queen Maeve did appear on the animated anthology miniseries "The Boys Presents: Diabolical," which expands on "The Boys" universe. Developed with a creative team that includes Seth Rogen, "Diabolical" experiments with different animation styles and storytelling genres across the show's eight episodes.

Reprising her role as Maeve, Dominique McElligott appears in the third episode, "I'm Your Pusher," which is drawn in the same animation style as the "The Boys" comics. Other animation styles featured in the show include Looney Tunes, Justin Roiland's "Rick and Morty" aesthetic, the "Bee and Puppycat" aesthetic, Western superhero-style anime, gritty American superhero animation, and Korean horror.

Although there's no word yet on whether "Diabolical" will return, Seth Rogen says there's always a chance, telling Collider in 2022, "They've bought some scripts for the next season, so we've been writing them. We're not 100% sure they will produce them, but if everything goes as planned they will produce the scripts that we're writing right now."

Speaking with Variety in 2022, Eric Kripke emphasized the need to remove Maeve so that Annie could come into her own as a hero ahead of Starlight's final showdown with Homelander. With Annie's mentor out of the picture, the stakes are much higher since no one is there to stand between her and Homelander. And even if Maeve does return, her powers seem to be gone for good, so she wouldn't be much help in a fight. Still, Kripke mused, "I don't think "The Boys" will end without Maeve showing up again."

With "The Boys" Season 5 on the horizon, Kripke believes there's a strong chance we'll get to see Maeve return at some point. Season 5 will wrap up the show's final story arc, and Kripke has already said he hopes to see Maeve come back before it's over. As Kripke told TVLine more definitively, "[T]he series will definitely not end without seeing Maeve again."