Why Homelander Killed Black Noir On The Boys Season 3

Fans of "The Boys" have learned how to deal with loss. The Prime Video series, like the Garth Ennis comic book that inspired it, really doesn't hold back when it comes to character deaths. Some characters have lifespans stretching across multiple seasons, some unceremoniously explode in their introductory scene, but nobody on "The Boys" is safe.

Even by this show's standards, however, Black Noir's death was pretty shocking. The ending of "The Boys" Season 3 packed quite a punch, no pun intended, and one of the biggest surprises was the moment Homelander killed his longtime "friend" and faithful ally with a single blow. Throughout the course of the season, we learned that an old supe named Soldier Boy is Homelander's biological father. Black Noir worked with Soldier Boy in the '70s and sold him out to Vought's enemies. Homelander's always quick to violence, so he didn't waste much time in putting his hand through Black Noir's chest after learning the truth.

Behind the scenes, killing Black Noir was a big decision that the writers hadn't settled on until the very last moment. Of course, in the world of "The Boys," very few people even know that Black Noir is dead because someone else is wearing his iconic ninja suit these days. Here's the full scoop on Noir's death and the replacement Homelander hired to fill his shoes.  

Showrunner Eric Kripke has shed some light on the reasoning that he and the other writers for "The Boys" used to decide that it was Black Noir's time to go. Kripke told Business Insider, "We needed something really shocking and momentous," but insisted that before it came time to actually write the episode, Black Noir's death wasn't on the table. Once he and the writers for "The Boys" started drafting the finale, they realized that Noir wasn't going to make it to the end credits. 

Kripke asserted, though, that Noir's death wasn't simply meant to raise the stakes or shake things up between Homelander and his allies in time for the finale. "Actions have consequences," Kripke said to sum up the conclusion he and the writers reached, adding, "As we were tracking Homelander and watching him unravel, I couldn't understand a version where he wasn't gonna have some sort of huge reaction to Noir, who's been lying to him his entire life about the thing Homelander needed most in the world."

Homelander definitely saw Black Noir's actions as an extreme betrayal, but it's worth noting that despite viewing Noir as a friend, Homelander didn't treat him any better than the rest of the Seven. In fact, with Noir no longer a part of the team, Homelander immediately set about finding a perfect, more compliant, replacement.

If you were shocked to see Black Noir pop back up after being unceremoniously murdered by Homelander, you weren't alone. In our review of "The Boys" Season 4, we praised the new supes that the show introduced, but Season 4's take on Black Noir was especially worthy of acclaim. In the beginning of the season, Black Noir is simply there, silent as ever, and apparently willing to murder the moment Homelander commands it. Before too long, we learn that the Black Noir in "The Boys" Season 4 isn't the same man that we've all come to know. 

It seems like Homelander can't imagine the Seven without Noir, either because of his own personal hangups or a reluctance to have the media asking questions about Vought's flagship team. Between seasons, Homelander hires a Vought-approved supe actor to play Noir, but even though the new hire is fairly loyal to his boss, he has a tendency to break character by speaking. Thanks to a fight with the Boys, we know two other things about New Noir: He definitely has powers, though they may not be exactly the same as the original Noir's, and his combat prowess is a little undercut by his narcolepsy, which causes him to pass out mid-battle.

Everyone has been surprised by the direction Black Noir's story has taken, even people who have read the original "The Boys" comic books. The show has deviated from the comics in some pretty extreme ways, and at this point the two are only tentatively tied together. Out of all the things "The Boys" TV show changed from the comics, Black Noir's character arc might be the biggest.

In the comics, Black Noir wasn't just a side character on the Seven that the Boys needed to dispatch in order to get to Homelander. By the end of the original series, we learn that Black Noir is really the worst villain of them all. In the comics, Black Noir is created as a fail-safe to destroy Homelander if Vought ever needed him to. Unfortunately, Black Noir goes rogue and frames Homelander for a whole slew of crimes, including assaulting Butcher's wife. Black Noir actually causes Homelander to become evil and orchestrates most of the tragedies that befall the Boys throughout the original series. In the end, he's the big bad that Butcher and the others need to square off against.

"The Boys" cast is filled with familiar faces, but fans aren't necessarily going to recognize the man playing Black Noir: Nathan Mitchell. Vought's super-ninja is one of the few heroes in the show that actually wears a mask. Even though we learn in Season 4 that the original Noir doesn't really know martial arts, he's committed to the anonymous ninja lifestyle.

Technically, we never see Black Noir's face in "The Boys." Mithcell doesn't get to take the mask off until Season 4, and by that point he's playing New Noir. Despite being permanently masked and completely silent, Mitchell still managed to convey Black Noir's personality in the first few seasons, and his performance as New Noir, who's clearly in over his head as a member of the Seven, is even better. In between seasons of "The Boys," Mitchell has kept busy starring as Zion Miller in Netflix's "Ginny and Georgia," so fans can go there to see more of his acting sans mask.