Laz Alonso on His The Boys Spinoff Pitch, How Mothers Milks Story Feeds Into Vought Rising

[This story contains spoilers from the fifth and final season finale of The Boys.]

Laz Alonso’s character Mother’s Milk was one of the few characters that got out of The Boys unscathed (if unscathed meant not dying by the series finale).

After saying goodbye to the rest of his fellow supe fighters after Billy Butcher’s funeral, Mother’s Milk returns home to life with his wife and daughter. But he doesn’t leave the group alone, as it’s revealed that Ryan, the son to supervillain Homelander and Billy Butcher’s late wife Becca, has gone with him.

Alonso tells The Hollywood Reporter the decision for Mother’s Milk to take Ryan under his wing “was a symbol of breaking generational curses.”

“If we understand who Ryan is to MM, he’s very close to MM’s story, because he’s the grandson of Soldier Boy, the man that killed MM’s grandfather and sent him down this completely different life of spiraling out of control,” he says. “When [series creator Eric] Kripke explained to me the whole arc of the character, it just blew me away, how much thought he’s put into these characters and their stories.”

Below, Alonso elaborates on Mother’s Milk’s ending in The Boys, the story he thinks should be explored in a potential spinoff, how his character’s backstory may lend itself to the new prequel Vought Rising and what the show has meant to him.

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By the very end of The Boys, we learn that Mother’s Milk has returned home to his family, but he also took Ryan with him. Why do you think Ryan ended up going with him?

It was always Eric Kripke’s intention to make Mother’s Milk story an arc about breaking generational cycles and curses. If you remember in season three, that was the season we actually got to learn what was haunting Mother’s Milk, his backstory. Why does he have OCD? Why is he so passionate about hunting down these supes? [Viewers learned] where his war against Vought came from, and it came from Soldier Boy killing his grandfather in Harlem. That’s what completely changed his life. The irony here is that Mother’s Milk’s biggest fear has never been supes. His biggest fear was passing down his generational trauma that he got from his dad and his dad got from his dad. They were all fighting against this whole Vought and supe situation. The more MM tried to fight passing down that trauma, the more he actually made it worse. And in season five, we finally see a side of where he lets go of that fight, where he’s almost become a cynic and given up. He’s no longer the beacon of hope, the glue, the guy that’s trying to look at the bright side of things and keep the team together. He’s relinquished that need to control the situation. But the weirdest thing happens when you no longer try to hold on to something so tight that it slips between your fingers. When you let go, you’re free, and he found freedom in that.

Being able to adopt Ryan and take him under his wing was a symbol of breaking generational curses, because if we understand who Ryan is to MM, he’s very, very close to MM’s story, because he’s the grandson of Soldier Boy, the man that killed MM’s grandfather and sent him down this completely different life of spiraling out of control. So when Kripke explained to me the whole arc of the character, and MM has to live and what his responsibility is moving forward by taking Ryan under his wing, it just blew me away, how much thought he’s put into these characters and their stories and arcs. I’ve read comments online and they’re like, “We feel like [MM’s] story was not finished, because he didn’t kill Soldier Boy.” But killing Soldier Boy wasn’t necessarily MM’s full story. His full story was regaining his life, making it home to his family and not passing on the trauma that he’s carried on for so many years.

When you first read the finale script, was there anything specific that stood out to you that shocked you? Were you shocked that MM was going to live? Did you think there was a possibility he would die?

No, I knew since season three that MM wasn’t gonna die. Kripke and I had very, very deep conversations about MM’s series arc. Especially in season three, when he started to really become more of a prominent character within the group. But I didn’t think that Butcher was gonna die. I did have hope that something was gonna change and Butcher wouldn’t have to die, especially at the hands of Hughie. That really broke my heart to read. [Karl Urban and Jack Quaid] played it beautifully. These guys, the life that they gave to what was on the page — you can only write so many details. When the actor takes hold of it, they give it a whole new, different breath, and I just felt like Jack and Karl, their relationship and friendship made that scene so beautiful. It did not play the same way it read [in the script]. It read a little bit more violent. And they played it with so much humanity and tenderness. It was a tearjerker.

MM is one of the characters who did not die by the end of The Boys, and he kind of got what he wanted out of all this craziness of the Boys’ journey, which was going home to his family. Do you think that he’s now ready to leave behind his supe-finding past and move forward?

I think so, to be honest. You know, I think that the fact that he made a promise to Stan Edgar, MM is a man of his word, and Stan Edgar told him that he was gonna be running far again. MM told Stan Edgar, “When that day comes, I have a job to do, too, and that’s to put a bullet between your eyes.” So, I do think that in the Vought universe, as long as Stan Edgar exists and he continues to proliferate this business of supes running amok, it’s only so long before he is gonna feel like he has a job to finish. And now he’s got Ryan by his side, so there’s a lineage there. You think about when Butcher recruited Hughie [in season one] and he taught him the ropes. I almost feel like there’s something there with MM and Ryan that would be really interesting to develop.

You mean like a future potential Boys spinoff starring MM and Ryan?

Hey, listen, I’m always pitching. So, Amazon, if you’re listening; Kripke, if you’re listening. No, I’m kidding. As an actor, you’re always thinking in stories, in storylines. Obviously, this is not a conversation that was had with me or this is not something that was told that there’s a potential thing. But in my mind, that’s what’s happening. MM made a promise, and if I know him — and I think I know him pretty well — he meant what he said.

Vought Rising is going to be coming out next year, and this is going to tackle the Soldier Boy era of the Seven. It’s a prequel series set in the ’50s. We’ve talked about MM’s family’s past with Soldier Boy, and although that piece of the story doesn’t necessarily occur specifically in the ’50s, do you think that Vought Rising will at all explore that connection to MM’s family?

I think they should. I anticipate that Vought Rising is gonna have a very, very successful launch and many successful seasons. And at some point, as time progresses — I don’t know what kind of timeframes or time blocks they’ll be building each season — but at some point, I think it would be interesting to see Soldier Boy in Harlem. The connection between Vought Rising and The Boys really is, if you think about it, a direct storyline connecting to a member of The Boys to Soldier Boy. So, it would be interesting to see MM’s mom working in a compound V factory, MM’s dad suing Vought for unsafe work conditions, MM being born with a V addiction, if they decide to show any of that. There was a lot that connected The Boys‘ world to Vought, and that connection was through Soldier Boy and MM.

I have seen the behind-the-scenes photos that you’ve been sharing from set on Facebook. Are there any other behind-the-scenes moments from the final episode that stand out to you?

I have so much in my camera roll. I’ve got seven years worth of pictures, and it can get a little overwhelming because you don’t want to flood your timeline with just pictures of The Boys, but there’s so many funny moments and most of them were off-camera. Our funniest, craziest moments were in between takes. Everybody’s last day [on set], I was privileged enough to get everybody’s last day wrap speeches. Erin [Moriarty]’s, Karen [Fukuhara]’s, Karl [Urban]’s, Jack [Quaid]’s. I did not get Tomer [Capone’s wrap speech], because I wasn’t there the day that he shot his last day. But they’re such beautiful speeches; they’re heartfelt, everyone is basically in tears. At some point, I would love to do an homage to my castmates’ final speeches once they wrapped. It just really shows the connection that we shared for seven years with our crew. We really did share a special connection with a family that we never knew was waiting for us in Toronto. That’s something that we’ll cherish forever.

What has being a part of The Boys meant to you?

It means so much to me that it’s hard to summarize, but I’m gonna say joy. Because, from a career perspective, I feel like I’ve gotten better on this show. I’m a better actor now than I was seven years ago. From a friendship perspective, from meeting genuinely good people who want nothing from you except to make sure that you’re okay, I’m literally speechless. I’ve never had this experience in any work environment, especially in my film and television career, where we’ve been surrounded by good people. I can’t compliment any higher than that.

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All eight episodes of The Boys season five are now streaming on Prime Video. Read all of THR’s coverage of The Boys season five here.