Does The Boys trailer mislead for season 5?

What the marketing implied vs. what the show is delivering

Coverage focused on The Boys season 5’s final stretch, arguing that the teaser trailers have been setting expectations that don’t fully match what the season is actually doing. With only one episode left at the time of the report, the contrast between marketing and on-screen delivery is the central point.

What “lying to us” refers to

The claim isn’t that the trailer is fake in a technical sense, but that its messaging can make viewers anticipate events, character beats, or tonal shifts that the season either handles differently—or delays—or reframes once the real episodes arrive.

That matters because The Boys relies on surprise and reversal. If the trailer gets viewers looking in the wrong direction, it can change how they interpret character motivations and the stakes of the series finale.

How it affects the audience right now

As the finale approaches, audiences typically use trailers to:

• predict which storylines will converge
• gauge how dark or explosive the endgame will feel
• decide whether specific characters will get major turns

If the season’s actual content differs, it can make the ending land with more emotional impact—especially for viewers who have formed assumptions based on promotional footage.

What’s still unclear

The story doesn’t provide specific trailer-to-episode mappings, so it doesn’t spell out which moments were “wrong.” Instead, it emphasizes overall mismatch.

In short: the season 5 marketing and the episodes are misaligned enough that viewers may be walking into the end with expectations that the show doesn’t ultimately fulfill.