One of The Boys’ most iconic and fan-favorite characters was noticeably absent from the series’ highly anticipated finale when it aired on May 20.
Queen Maeve, the Wonder Woman-inspired former member of The Seven played by Dominique McElligott during seasons 1-3, was nowhere to be seen during the Season 5 episode, “Blood and Bone.”
Maeve was last seen at the end of Season 3. After battling Homelander (and losing one of her eyes in the process), as well as surviving after getting her powers blasted away by Soldier Boy, the wounded former Supe faked her own death and snuck off to go live a life of peace and anonymity with her girlfriend—something Ashley helped facilitate by deleting Vought’s CCTV footage of Maeve’s escape plan in action.
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While it wouldn’t have made much sense for Maeve, now de-powered, to come back prior to the final showdown, many fans wondered if she might make a cameo in the finale, considering her importance as a central figure in earlier seasons.
It turns out showrunner Eric Kripke was game to make it happen, but McElligott had already put her on-screen past behind her.
Why Wasn’t Queen Maeve in The Boys Finale?
Speaking to Gold Derby, Eric Kripke revealed he initially was going to write an appearance for Queen Maeve in the series’ finale, but actress Dominique McElligott had already retired from acting.
Plus, she wasn’t even available to shoot anyway.
“I would have loved to have had Maeve. I was in conversation with [Dominique]. 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,” Kripke shared.
The series’ creator told TV Insider he emailed McElligott early on about a potential cameo to make sure he would have enough time to incorporate Maeve.
“…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,” Kripke shared.
Still, he wanted to “bring up Maeve’s spirit if we couldn’t actually bring her up in person.” And so, the character was ultimately included in the episode’s series recap via a previously aired scene.
“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 [Moreau], and that there’s this lineage of strong women that started with Maeve,” Kripke explained.
All episodes of seasons 1-5 of The Boys are streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
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