Seven years after its widely well-received first season premiered in July 2019, Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys recently aired its fifth and final season in April-May 2026.
The final season, which disappointed many fans, did not feature Dominique McElligott’s Queen Maeve, as in the show’s fourth season. But it wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of showrunner Eric Kripke.
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With Kripke revealing McElligott’s reason for not returning in the show’s grand conclusion, netizens connected it to a previous rumor surrounding her and co-star Anthony Starr, who plays the infamous Homelander.
“This is what we get for treating celebrities like gods among men: they do f*cked up sh*t and get away with it,” one user said.
Warning: Potential spoilers for The Boys season 5 ahead.
The Boys showrunner revealed Dominique McElligott has retired from acting
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Dominique McElligott has not acted in any project since her appearance in The Boys season 3 in 2022. She has completely stepped away from social media platforms and rarely makes public appearances.
Last time viewers saw Queen Maeve, she survived a near-fatal explosion and fall while battling Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), but lost her powers and went into hiding with her girlfriend, Elena (Nicola Correia-Damude).
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After her absence in season 4, fans expected to see Queen Maeve in the finale, even if only for a few minutes. However, despite her name and likeness being referenced throughout the eight episodes and shown in recaps, she did not appear in any new scenes.
In an interview with TV Insider published on May 20, Kripke revealed his last conversation with McElligott, which shed some light on her no-show.
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Kripke said he asked McElligott if she would be open to returning for the final season and offered some potential dates for the Irish actress to consider.
He added that he and McElligott communicate every 6-8 months, and she checked in on him after the 2025 Palisades fires.
“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 on those dates anyway,’” Kripke said.
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“So, that was honestly it. It was a very pleasant, non-controversial moment, you know? But 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 (Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty), and now Annie is passing the torch to Marie (Jaz Sinclair), and that there’s this lineage of strong women that started with Maeve.”
Online theories claimed Antony Starr “bullied” Dominique McElligott out of the industry
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After Kripke’s revelation, many users speculated whether a two-year-old rumor about The Boys lead actor Antony Starr bullying McElligott on set had anything to do with her retirement.
“If she’s retired, then that gives a lot of credibility to the leaker’s claim about her being relentlessly bullied by Starr until she left the industry,” one user said in response to Kripke’s May 2026 revelation about McElligott’s retirement.
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Another wrote, “That whole retirement situation looks so suspicious. Coincidence or not, they really did Maeve dirty, and she deserved a way better send-off.”
“It’s just Anthony Starr playing Homelander on screen and behind the scenes literally,” said a third.
These comments referred to a previous allegation by a self-proclaimed The Boys insider, Vought HQ, named after the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate from the series.
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In a 2024 Instagram AMA session, Vought HQ had claimed, “A former actor of the show I spoke with regularly told me [Starr] bullied Dominique relentlessly and would be very inappropriate with the female guest stars.”
They refused to name the actor who shared the information to protect their identity.
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When another question asked for more clarification, Vought HQ said, “I was told by someone in costumes that Antony Starr bullied Dominique McElligott so bad that she left the industry and would always fly back home instead of being with the cast because of him.”
“He’s a bully, a s*xist d*ckhead who has beaten up people on more than one occasion.”
Antony Starr was previously arrested for injuring a young chef
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In March 2022, months before the third season of The Boys premiered, Antony Starr was arrested in Alicante, Spain, where he was filming for Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.
According to reports, he had beaten up a 21-year-old chef, Bathuel Araujo, at a pub in Costa Blanca and reportedly punched him twice and smashed a glass into his face.
After the police arrived, Starr was detained, and Araujo had to be taken to the hospital for stitches.
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After spending two nights in a police cell, Starr was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence for drunken as*ault and was given 72 hours to pay £4,141 (around $5,465 at the time) to Araujo if he wanted to avoid spending time behind bars. He was also required not to commit another crime in the next two years.
“The detainee’s state of drunkenness was taken into account as an extenuating factor,” a court official told the media.
“The sentence was the result of an agreement between the state prosecution service and the man who was subsequently convicted.”
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Araujo told local press at the time that his aggressor was “very drunk” and lashed out after a friend he was with asked an associate of the actor to “calm down,” to which Starr responded by cussing, punching, and breaking a glass on his left eyebrow.
Araujo added that Starr threatened him in English, saying, “You don’t know who you’ve messed with, you don’t know who I am, and what you’ve done.”
“You’ve committed the mistake of your life, and I’m going to look for you. I want to k*ll you,” Starr allegedly said.
“Blatantly narcissistic.” The internet reacted to Queen Maeve actress Dominique McElligott refusing to return for The Boys‘ final season
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