Warning: SPOILERS for The Boys season 4 episodes 1-3.

The Boys season 4 brings Billy Butcher, Homelander, Hughie, Starlight, and the rest back into the fold for more diabolical mayhem. For better or for worse, none of the show’s primary characters are the same as they were when the first season aired in 2019, and a litany of battles, betrayals, and other misdeeds has made their latest adventures weightier and ever more costly. With the show also steering ever more directly into America’s current culture war, The Boys season 4 is the darkest entry in the franchise yet.

And then there’s Vought on Ice. For just a moment in between the show’s usual head-popping, laser-blasting, bone-crunching mayhem, audiences are treated to the anti-woke anthem “Let’s Put The Christ Back in Christmas”, sung by an ice skating Queen Maeve (Shoshana Bean), Homelander (Andrew Rannells), and Jesus Christ (James Monroe Iglhart)—until, of course, what usually happens in The Boys happens once again. The song, which can be heard in full online and on The Boys season 4 soundtrack, was written by composer Christopher Lennertz, who has provided underscore and unforgettable songs to the series since the beginning.

Together with co-composer Matt Bowen, Lennertz also worked up The Boys season 4 musical highlights like the saccharine inspirational music behind the Will Ferrell and A-Train movie while also scoring the series’ dramatic twists and turns. Lennertz and Bowen also wrote the music for Gen V and will return for The Boys’ fifth and final season. Lennertz discussed how The Boys season 4 ramps up to the series finale, writing for Vought on Ice, and his hopes for a live-action Vought musical in conversation with Screen Rant.

Season 4 Is A “Wind Up For The Swing” Of Season 5

Screen Rant: This season felt different to me. When you started watching it, how did it feel to you, compared to others?

Christopher Lennertz: Yeah, it definitely felt different, and I kind of knew it would. They just announced it, but I knew Eric [Kripke’s] hope from the beginning was that it’d be a five season show and, just thinking about how story works, setting up for a climax is usually different. It usually is much more murky, much more gray, much less black and white. And, while the story wasn’t over, we had really solid climaxes to everything. We had Stormfront at the end of season two and Soldier Boy at the end of season three. Our characters asserted themselves in very straight, very easily definable ways.

Now, all the characters have done horrible things. Even the ones we love the most—even the ones we’re cheering for. Huey, everybody. So, it’s a little murkier. I think, on our end, that’s what makes it interesting and what makes it great, but judging as a setup for a climax that hopefully will knock everybody’s socks off, you have to wind up for the swing.

It’s not same story-wise, but my favorite Star Wars movie is The Empire Strikes Back. One of the reasons I love that so much is specifically because [it’s like], “Wait a second, Luke didn’t necessarily follow Yoda’s orders,” and, “Wait, and Han might not live.” At the end, there’s no award ceremony like there was at the end of A New Hope, and it’s not the end of [Return of the] Jedi where you’re partying with the Ewoks. It’s the setup, and setups feel differently.

And I think sometimes that feels like, “Well, where’s it going?”, but that’s exactly the point. And the one thing is I know Kripke enough, and I know Seth and Evan enough, that all of it is very much on purpose. All of it is exactly what’s going on in Eric’s head, and I have no doubt that I will be shocked with my jaw on the ground when I start to see the first footage of season five. I’m counting on it and I can’t wait to write music for it. It’s going to blow people’s minds.

“I’ve Always Wanted To Do One Of Will’s Movies”: Lennertz Talks Scoring A-Train’s Vought Movie

Did you have a specific movie or film score in mind when doing the Will Ferrell/A-Train scenes? They’re so good.

Christopher Lennertz: I think it was a set of movies. First of all, I love sports movies. If you asked me, “What have you not done yet that you want to do?” I’d be like, “I want to do [a] Hoosiers, Remember the Titans, Rudy, or Field of Dreams.” So, when Eric showed me the scene, I was like, “Yes, I got it. There it is.” And it’s with Will [Ferrell]. I’ve always wanted to do one of Will’s movies too, so yeah, I was pretty excited. It was really sort of an amalgamation of all of that.

It was like, “How do I get that emotion and that sort of tingly feeling?” Because there’s always that scene, right? There’s always that scene when the athlete wants to quit and the coach is like, “Don’t do it. You’re throwing it all away.” Of course, as we always do in The Boys, Eric’s comment is like, “Yes, it’s funny because of the ridiculous position that it puts A-Train in and how completely over it A-Train is, but don’t play that at all.” He’s [like], “I want to feel exactly like I felt watching Dennis Hopper in Hoosiers when he’s in the hospital bed watching his kid shoot that basket.” That was really where that came from.

Inside The Creation Of “Let’s Put The Christ Back In Christmas”

We have to talk about “Let’s Put The Christ Back in Christmas”. How did that start? Did Eric give you a title, or did he just say, “We’re going to have a musical number?”

Christopher Lennertz: There was a short paragraph. I think it said, “There needs to be a song for basically a Vought version of Ice Capades or Disney on Ice, and the show is about the War on Christmas and trying to up Homelander’s numbers with the far right.” It said something about putting Christ back in Christmas, and I think it said it needs to feel like a traditional Disney on Ice number, but then it’s going to lead to this bloodbath.

Originally, I think it was supposed to be Maeve and Homelander singing, but it had mentioned there would be a nativity scene and Jesus would come down and talk to them. I think I texted [Eric] right after, like, “Well, can Jesus sing?” He’s like, “Well, sure, of course, why not?” I’m like, “Great. We’re going to have a trio. We’re going to do Jesus singing with Homelander in Maeve, all skating.” They surprised me with the skating donkey, which was pretty awesome.

Immediately after that, I’m like, “Well, can we go after the biggest stars on Broadway and make this a cameo thing?” As soon as Eric said to go for it, I was like, “I need to get Andrew Ranells to play Homelander.” I knew that right away that had to happen. And then after that I was like, “Shoshana is the perfect voice for Maeve.” She’s got one of the best voices on the planet, quite honestly. She’s amazing. And then James is the one guy who I had worked with before, who I adored, and I knew I absolutely wanted James’s booming voice.

He was the Genie [in Aladdin] on Broadway. He was Washington in Hamilton. Also, like, “Yeah, absolutely, we need a giant black Jesus in Vought’s production that then they recast, probably, for numbers and stuff based on analytics.” I knew that was all going to happen. And what I didn’t know is that James was actually a giant The Boys fan and he has this giant comic book collection. Broadway stars and comic books usually don’t match very much, but for me and James, that was something we could definitely connect on.

I feel like, as a composer, you get to maintain a little bit of distance. If the story makes someone angry, you can usually just be like, “I just did the music,” but you wrote lyrics to this. Even though it’s satire, was any part of you afraid of going too far?

Christopher Lennertz: I really thought about it a lot. I probably might worry about that a little more than Eric will. Eric is usually like, “Let’s keep going. Let’s take it farther.” It is interesting because I’ve seen comments online already, and I’m sure at some point Hannity’s going to get ahold of this, or Tucker or somebody will make a big deal out of it. But, in all honesty, Eric’s one of the kindest people I know, and I love Christmas. My family calls me Christmas Chris, I literally have Clark Griswold t-shirts. I say Merry Christmas all the time. The funny part, and this is what Eric and I talked about, is [that] this is not making fun of Christmas, this is not making fun of Jesus, it’s not making fun of any of that.

It’s making fun of taking it too far, where somehow somebody saying “Season’s greetings” to someone who celebrates Ramadan is some sort of a cancellation of you, as someone who says Christmas. And that’s just silly, because from what I know—I grew up Catholic—that’s not Christian. Christianity is accepting people, and that’s the opposite.

I don’t like to be mean. I don’t think I would’ve been mean, but I think the song is more about poking fun of not being accepting. And that’s what Christmas is all about: actually making sure everybody feels joy. I’m sure there are people out there who’d be like, “Yeah, bulls**t. That’s not it. You missed the point. You’re going to hell.” If that’s the case—if this song is going to send me to hell—then I guess that’s what’s going to happen, but I personally don’t think it is. I’ll still be singing Christmas carols around the Christmas tree this winter. I always do. And one of them might actually be this song. I think Jesus would have a sense of humor.

Christopher Lennertz Pitches Vought On Broadway: “Wicked”, But With Homelander

Because next season is the last, is there any sort of musical thing that you’ve been pitching and praying for this whole time that you’re still holding out hope for?

Christopher Lennertz: Definitely. I’ve whispered “Vought on Broadway” to Kripke many times. He knows I want it. I don’t know whether it’ll happen. I’ve never heard anything about it, but he knows I would love to do Wicked, but with Homelander and The Deep. I just put a message on Claudia’s (Doumit, who plays Victoria Neuman) socials last week. I’m like, “I need to know—can you sing?” I just want to know who can sing. I’m always surprised at so many of our people. If Anthony sings, I’m in, let’s make him sing.

Who else haven’t I gotten? Mother’s Milk. I’m dying to do it—lt’s do a Mother’s Milk song. I feel like we need to get everybody, and we could do it by doing a group thing, whether it’s on Broadway or something else. The idea for Voughtchella just came in my mind.

Maybe a We Are the World or a U.S.A for Africa—we could do a big charity thing. There are so many great ideas, but it would allow me to get all of them in there and find out who can sing, and it would be great to finish the show.

Even if it’s not in-show—even if it’s a side thing, which of course The Boys is very good at. I would love to be able to get to work with the rest of the cast who I haven’t yet got to. But yeah, there’s a couple left that we need to get to. Oh, Ashley. I need to get Ashley to sing. It’d be too easy. We need to find out if Colby can sing.

“The VCU Is Strong”: Lennertz (Briefly) Weighs In On A Post-The Boys World

That’s all I’ve got for you. Please do what you can to make sure this universe continues beyond season 5 for all of us.

Christopher Lennertz: After Gen V’s. success, I think there are a lot of great ideas out there. I think the VCU is strong.

About The Boys Season 4

The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.

Check out our other interviews here:

• Antony Starr & Chace Crawford
• Colby Minifie, Susan Heyward & Valorie Curry
• Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Claudia Doumit & Eric Kripke