‘The Boys’ Showrunner Eric Kripke Explains Why Homelander Had to Kill Jared Padalecki

Now that we’ve washed off the guts and gooey innards that exploded all over us during The Boys big Supernatural reunion last week, it’s time to pick apart two pieces some of us have been wondering about. In the episode, “One-Shots,” Homelander (Antony Starr) and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) headed to Los Angeles to see if C-list supes Mr. Marathon (Jared Padalecki) and Malchemical (Misha Collins) had a lead on the original supe-making serum V-One.

Obviously, this was a huge deal for the SPN family, being the first time Ackles, Padalecki and Collins shared the screen since their Winchester brothers Dean and Sam bid adieu to angel bud Castiel and The CW hit six years ago. Adding to the fun was the fact that The Boys‘ showrunner Eric Kripke created Supernatural and served as its showrunner for the first five seasons and the episode was directed by long-time Supernatural director Phil Sgriccia, while bonus points are added for cameos by Kumail Nanjiani, Craig Robinson, Will Forte, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Boys EP Seth Rogen.

In true Boys fashion, the get-together was bloody good time in the most literal way as Homelander and Soldier Boy interrupted Marathon’s star-filled poker game hour. After some back and forth, Collins’ Malchemical wound up gassing Homelander, leading Solider Boy to defend his “f**king asexual weirdo” son by snapping Maclhemical’s neck. From there,  we got a violent, viscera-laden masterpiece as Marathon—who was replaced on The Seven by the faster A-Train—accidentally ran through his friends while speeding around his mansion chasing Soldier Boy. Eventually Marathon was felled by a slick of baby oil and had his head crushed by an awakened Homelander.

So given that there was so much anticipation around this reunion and over two decades of fanfic-fueled lore regarding Ackles and Collins’ Supernatural characters, we had to ask Kripke…was there ever a time where they considered making Malchemical more than just a fan of Soldier Boy’s?

“No, that was never part of the discussion,” laughs Kripke, adding that he gets why folks would hold out hope. “I mean look, the Supernatural fans and the Destiel proponents, God love them all and [please] keep on doing it. I want the audience to, you know, embrace and love whatever they’re passionate about. That’s one where I’m choosing to leave it up to audience interpretation.”

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As for how it was decided who would kill Padalecki’s character, well, that was discussed. Instead of having Homelander stomp him like a 6’5″ grape with great hair, did anyone pitch a reverse version of Dean’s death in the Supernatural finale by having Padalecki impaled on a spike while Soldier Boy comforts him?

“It’s funny that you say that, and maybe it’s my sentimentality for the guys, [but] it would have been very easy to have had Soldier Boy kill Mr. Marathon in that moment, but there was something about it where I was like ‘It doesn’t feel right to me to have Jensen kill Jared.’  It made me feel, you know, sketchy. So then we brought in Homelander to do it, which felt like a lot more appropriate. So yeah, no, that was intentional, that was intentional. I didn’t want want Jensen to kill Jared.”