Antony Starr has waved goodbye to The Boys and supervillain Homelander as Season 5 wraps production.
In a post on Instagram, Starr reflected on the end of the hugely popular Prime Video show now the fifth and final season is in the can, thanking the cast and crew as well as “the people at Amazon and Sony that took a chance on this insane thing (and made the great choice in casting me😂).”
Starr also had some interesting words for Homelander, the evil Superman-style antagonist who has dominated headlines around The Boys pretty much since the show hit Prime Video in 2019.
“This complicated character allowed the space and range to discover and push boundaries in a way I never expected and I will always be grateful for this experience,” Starr said, before thanking showrunner Eric Kripke, his “co-parent with this twisted gem of a character.”
“We created a monster, sir. And I will miss him, and you,” Starr added. “Til we roll out the last season. When I’ll see you. But this creative chapter is closed, and I’ll miss it, brother.”
Homelander has always been a contentious character. The Boys is a super gory satire of the superhero genre based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. It follows the eponymous team of vigilantes who work to bring down a group of supervillains (The Seven).
Homelander is a demented despot who rules The Seven with an iron fist. The other supes on the team live in fear of his mood swings and his overpowered abilities, which give him carte blanche to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
In May, Starr spoke of his surprise at the glorification of Homelander by some The Boys fans, calling it “surreal.”
“We had a bunch of guys that we all kind of knocked them down a little but on social media to say, ‘This guy is not the hero of any story.'” Starr said. “They were really glorifying him, they loved him. Which is surreal.”
Starr added that he was surprised to find some The Boys fans siding with Homelander, given the outrageously evil actions he takes in the show. “What I didn’t expect was that people would be so conflicted around it and, you know, finding themselves finding empathy for this monster.”
And last year, ahead of The Boys Season 4, Kripke responded to fans saying Homelander is a hero, saying: “Some people who watch it think Homelander is the hero. What do you say to that? The show’s many things. Subtle isn’t one of them. So if that’s the message you’re getting from it, I just throw up my hands.”
Kripe has also said that Homelander was always intended to be a proxy for Donald Trump. “When Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg] and I took it out to pitch, it was 2016,” he said. “We just wanted to do a very realistic version of a superhero show, one where superheroes are celebrities behaving badly.
“Trump was the, ‘He’s not really getting the nomination, is he?’ guy. When he got elected, we had a metaphor that said more about the current world. Suddenly, we were telling a story about the intersection of celebrity and authoritarianism and how social media and entertainment are used to sell fascism. We’re right in the eye of the storm. And once we realized that, I just felt an obligation to run in that direction as far as we could.”
Finally, in his goodbye post, Starr issued a “massive thank you to the fans. You are the life blood. Without you, we don’t get to do this. And our fans are second to none. Mad love to you… and deepest respect for your taste.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
