This article contains spoilers for season 3 of "The Boys."

Eric Kripke's Prime Video series "The Boys" has always been brutal, but season 3 was especially violent, killing off major characters or wounding them permanently. That's saying something when you take into account the fact that many of the characters are superhuman and incredibly tough to kill, but season 3 saw a whole lot of them kick the bucket.

Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), in particular, went through hell in the finale, losing an eye in the battle with Homelander (Antony Starr) and losing her powers in the battle with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). It looked like she died, but she miraculously survived, albeit as a normal, non-superpowered human with some pretty nasty injuries. This was a change from the character's fate in the comics, but it made a lot of sense given the changes to the character in general and her impressive arc over the three seasons. Maeve went from being selfish and apathetic to nearly sacrificing herself for others, and she deserves a happy ending as much as anyone does in the cynical, nihilistic world of "The Boys."

It looked like Maeve was going to get a chance to walk off into the sunset at the end of season 3. As far as the world knew, she had died in the fight with Soldier Boy, and she could finally go live happily ever after with her girlfriend Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude). Then again, Ashley (Colby Minifie) at Vought knows that Maeve's not dead, and that means she's not totally safe. In an interview with Variety, Kripke shared his thoughts about the future for Brave Maeve, and it sounds like we're going to see her again before the series ends.

Taking Away Annie's Support System

In the comics, Maeve dies, but Kripke and the writing team didn't want to fall into the "bury your gays" trope and thought Maeve deserved better. However, Annie (Erin Moriarty) needs to learn to stand on her own. Annie is the show's true hero, and in order for her to grow, Maeve had to disappear for a bit. Thankfully, it sounds like Kripke doesn't plan on making that absence permanent:

"I don't think 'The Boys' will end without Maeve showing up again… We needed a way to sort of gracefully get Maeve out of the show, let her head for the exit. Obviously, we didn't want to kill her and fall into the tropes of gay characters and bisexual characters in shows getting killed. We wanted to do the opposite of that and send her off and give her a happy ending with Elena. The best way to do that was, well, take away her powers, and she's not useful in the fight anymore. And we did that because Annie can't really grow into her own until all the characters that are around to protect her are gone. It was important for her next step for her mentor characters and her protector characters to go away. And so it's only up to Annie. There's no one left but Annie. So what is she going to do?"

At the end of season 3, Annie had left the Seven and was finally officially joining forces with The Boys and her boyfriend Hughie (Jack Quaid), but she's not exactly friendly with Butcher (Karl Urban), and Hughie's allegiance is clearly divided. She really is on her own, but maybe Maeve will return?

The Potential For Maeve's Return

While it would be lovely for Maeve to live the rest of her life in relative peace and quiet, this is "The Boys" and no one gets a happy ending. Besides, Maeve has become one of the series' strongest characters, and she deserves another shot at putting Homelander six feet under. Sure, she lost her powers on account of being hit with Soldier Boy's freaky beam, but she could always get them back the same way Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) did, by injecting herself with Compound V once more. It's not a sure thing and there's always a chance the V could just kill her outright, but based on what happened with Kimiko and Maeve's general resilience, I'm guessing she'll be back with a vengeance. Maybe she'll even have a super cool eye-patch and a new costume that's not tied to her abuse at the hands of Vought.

In a dream world, Maeve, Annie, and Kimiko get to start their own superhero team actually based on doing good, after taking out Homelander and the rest of the awful remaining members of the Seven. There aren't too many left, and Homelander's the only one that's a real threat (on land, anyway). What happens next in season 4 is anyone's best guess, but I'm looking forward to maybe seeing Maeve again.

"The Boys" is available to stream on Prime Video.

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The post The Boys' Eric Kripke Hasn't Forgotten About Queen Maeve appeared first on /Film.