The Boys Season 5: Why Vought Can’t Make V-One Anymore, Explained

Stan Edgar made it obvious very early on in The Boys that Vought was not a superhero company, but a pharmaceutical firm. Their product, Compound V, is the most valuable substance on the planet, capable of creating superpowered individuals.

Needless to say, there were versions of the miracle compound that existed before, and more recently, it was revealed that one of the previous versions of the drug, V-One, was ten times more potent than Vought’s later concoction.

Why, then, did the company decide to discontinue its most valuable asset? The reasons were numerous. Whether it is the high number of deaths among test subjects or the viability of the compound as a reliable mechanism for producing Supes, Vought had many reasons to ensure it is never produced or used again.

TV Show	The Boys
Total Seasons	5
Showrunner	Erik Kripke
Cast	Karl Urban Jack Quaid Antony Starr Erin Moriarty Jessie T. Usher Laz Alonso Chace Crawford
Rotten Tomatoes	93% || 75% (as of April 28, 2026)
IMDb	8.6/10 (as of April 28, 2026)

V-One Produced Only Five Successful Heroes

Despite being tested on thousands of people, the compound produced only five successful specimens: Soldier Boy, Liberty, Bombsight, Private Angel, and Torpedo. Given the extremely high death rate of the drug, Vought decided to destroy any evidence of the serum and all the documentation that came with it.

While a successful version of the drug in the form of Compound V would be launched by Vought, which would reliably create supes without washing out the majority of the trial pool, V-One remains one of the most potent versions of the serum, having made its recipients immune to aging and even grievous bodily harm.

Therefore, if any of the current players in The Boys universe get their hands on V-One, it is safe to assume that they are the ones who are going to come out on top in the end.

Where Could The Only Remaining Samples of V-One Be?

When The Boys and the father-son duo of Homelander and Soldier Boy made their way to Fort Harmony in King of Hell, a few important things were discovered there. One was that there might have been a vial of V-One on the compound, but the safe that it was in was broken into. Butcher and M.M quickly deduce that the theft could only have been committed by Bombsight, who was the only one who could have broken into the vault.

The other thing that we learned was that there was a system in Fort Harmony that could be used to imprison and incarcerate Supes that are as strong as Homelander. Severaly cripling the strongest supe on the planet, The Boys now know that a weakened version of the virus could be used to take out Homelander; he would just have to be in the radiation chamber that put him in. Unfortunately, it will need some time to gestate before it is anywhere near ready to be used on the Captain of the Seven.

Do you think The Boys are going to use a weakened virus on Homelander while he is trapped in the radiation room to kill him? Let us know in the comments below!

The Boys Season 5 is now streaming on Prime Video