Gen V will set the stage for The Boys season 4

We've got some time before The Boys returns with its highly anticipated season 4, which wrapped filming in April and is "coming soon...ish," teased star Karl Urban at the time. But Gen V, the franchise's first live-action spinoff that drops later this month, will serve as a nice appetizer for the debaucherous dish the team is cooking up.

Actress Claudia Doumit, who plays Congresswoman Victoria Neuman on The Boys, returns to the role for Gen V, which is set at the Vought-owned-and-operated college for young supes.

"It was great to shoot Gen V because they tee up a lot of stuff that's going to happen in season 4 for The Boys," Doumit says, as part of an interview conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. "Gen V lays a lot of the groundwork and a lot of the foundations that season 4 will be built on for The Boys. So, watch it because it gives you a lot of information."

Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon and MGM Studios, elaborates on the connections between the two shows.

"The thing we asked for, and the thing they delivered, was to create a show that lives on its own — that has its own engines — and then we can have fun with the ways in which the worlds collide," Sanders tells EW. "So, over the course of the season, there are definitely some crossovers, and Gen V pays off some of the direction of where we're going in season 4 of The Boys in great ways. I can't wait for the fans to dive in."

Gen V follows Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), a supe from the Red River Institute group home with the ability to manipulate and weaponize blood. She's accepted to Godolkin University, where she meets the likes of Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger), the top-ranked student who can set his whole body on fire; Jordan Li (played by both London Thor and Derek Luh), who can switch between male and female forms and access distinct power sets for each; Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo), with the power to manipulate metal; Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), who can shrink her size; Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips), who can mentally "push" people to do whatever she wants through touch; and Sam (Asa Germann), a troubled teen involved in a sinister mystery at Godolkin.

Besides Doumit's Neuman, other stars from The Boys who have been officially announced to be crossing over to Gen V are Jessie T. Usher (A-Train), Chace Crawford (the Deep), Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), and P.J. Byrne (Adam Bourke).

Gen V will debut the first three of season 1's eight episodes on Prime Video this Sept. 29.

As for The Boys season 4, we already know quite a bit. Showrunner Eric Kripke previously described the continuation as a "tug of war" between Urban's Billy Butcher and Antony Starr's Homelander for the soul of Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), following the climactic season 3 finale. Joining the cast are Rosemarie DeWitt (Aidan's ex-wife on And Just Like That) as the absentee mom of Jack Quaid's Hughie; Simon Pegg returning as Hughie's dad; Susan Heyward and Valorie Curry as the supes Sister Sage and Firecracker; and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead: Dead City), Rob Benedict (Supernatural), and Elliot Knight (Animal Kingdom) in undisclosed roles.

A premiere date has not been announced.

Read EW's Fall TV Preview cover story to learn more about Gen V.

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