Prime Video's The Boys has officially concluded after five seasons. Despite many theories that Queen Maeve might return, the character did not appear in the final season.
Dominique McElligott portrayed Queen Maeve, The Boys' version of Wonder Woman, throughout the show's first three seasons. The character was last seen in the Season 3 finale, where she lost her powers due to Soldier Boy's (Jensen Ackles) blast.
Viewers were expecting Queen Maeve to return, given that the character was featured in 'previously on' clips. The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has now explained why she did not appear in Season 5.
'The Boys' Showrunner Explains Queen Maeve's Absence in the Final Season
Kripke revealed that he tried to get McElligott to return as Queen Maeve in Season 5, but she declined due to her retirement from acting and scheduling conflicts.
In an interview with Gold Derby, The Boys showrunner said, 'I would have loved to have had Maeve. I was in conversation with Dom. We still email once in a while. She's mostly retired from acting, and her schedule didn't work out. It was all a very friendly, non-controversial thing. I was like, "If we wrote it, would you do it?" And she's like, "I'm kind of out of it, and I'm busy, and unfortunately I can't, but send everyone my love." That was sort of it.'
Eric Kripke says they tried to get Dominique McElligott to return as Queen Maeve in ‘The Boys' S5
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) May 20, 2026
"She's mostly retired from acting, and her schedule didn't work out"
"It was all a very friendly, non-controversial thing ... she's like, 'I'm kind of out of it, and I'm busy,… pic.twitter.com/LpgT8UWDHd
Additionally, Kripke told TV Insider, 'Dom and I email a couple of times every six to eight months or so, and she checked in on me after the Palisades fires. We throw each other emails, and I said very early because I wanted to know whether we were building for it, ''Would you be open to coming back for a day, and here are the dates." And it was very pleasant and respectful, she just said, "I've kind of retired from acting. [I'm not] really acting anymore, and I'm busy those dates anyway." So, that was honestly it. It was a very pleasant, non-controversial moment, you know?'
Even though Queen Maeve did not return, the show still included nods to the character in the final season.
How 'The Boys' Finale Paid Tribute to Queen Maeve
During a conversation with Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), Annie January/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) reflected on the things she learned from Queen Maeve when she joined The Seven.
'When I joined The Seven, I was so excited to meet Queen Maeve. But... never meet your heroes. She was bitter, she was checked out, and she just... She gave away so many parts of herself, there was nothing left...I swore to myself I would never let that happen to me. But it did,' Annie said.
Kripke told TV Insider, 'We wanted to pay homage to her; she's an important character, and so she shows up in the recap and in a way to show that Maeve passed the torch to Annie, and now Annie is passing the torch to Marie, and that there's this lineage of strong women that started with Maeve.'
'We wanted to bring up Maeve's spirit if we couldn't actually bring her up in person,' Kripke concluded.
