Black Noir’s The Boys Season 4 Return Explained

Regardless of Black Noir’s brutal and game-changing death in Season 3, the original member of The Seven will still be back for The Boys Season 4.

Fans caught a glimpse at the all-new Black Noir in the Season 4 teaser trailer where he was pictured in a photoshoot alongside The Deep and A-Train as he joins the latest line-up of The Seven.

As most have been left to believe Queen Maeve is dead and Starlight has been branded a traitor, it makes sense why Vought wouldn’t want to face the PR nightmare of losing a third member of their most famous superhero team.

The new replacement of Black Noir makes complete sense as Vought goes to great lengths to cover up his death and proceed as if nothing happened. But who is this brand-new assassin superhero going into Season 4 and who will play him?

Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Eric Kripke explained how “a character who is completely silent and in a black mask can be recast,” teasing how Black Noir’s replacement will be introduced.

Despite his reference to a “recast,” Kripke confirmed ahead of the production start in August 2022 that the actor behind the original supe Nathan Mitchell will return as “a different character who wears the Black Noir suit.”

He added how the man who was inside the Black Noir suit last season is “gone,” but Mitchell’s new character is “really interesting and hilarious:”

“It’s definitely not the last we’ve seen of Black Noir as a hero. It’s just that the guy who was inside [the Noir suit] in Season 3, he’s gone. But we have Nathan playing a really interesting and hilarious character who wears the suit next season.”

Kripke continued to make it clear it will still be Mitchell playing this “whole new character” who will be “[explored] as the season goes on:”

“We’ll explore it as the season goes on, but Nathan plays a whole new character.”

Who is The Boys’ New Black Noir?

Following the end of Season 3, The Seven was left as something closer to The Three, with only Homelander, A-Train, and The Deep still on the roster. As such, Vought will be looking to quickly refill that roster going into Season 4.

Joining Homelander, A-Train, and The Deep in Season 4 are newcomers Firecracker and Sister Sage, along with Black Noir II. It’s currently unclear who will take the seventh opening or if the final supe has even been chosen for the team.

In The Boys’ comic run, Black Noir has a far different origin to the Amazon series in which he is a superhero called Earving, who was a member of Vought’s first superhero team, Payback, during the Cold War.

By contrast, in the original pages of The Boys, Black Noir is a direct clone of Homelander who was created as his solo equal who would be able to take him down if he were to ever become a problem for Vought.

As Homelander continues to spiral out of control, pushing his power and influence to the limits, now may be the perfect time for Vought to prepare a backup plan to take down their famous supe just in case.

But as Black actor Nathan Mitchell is still set to play Black Noir, it seems unlikely the show will be taking the Homelander clone route. Although that doesn’t mean he can’t still be a new supe Vought is readying to potentially take on Homelander.