Antony Starr (who surprises many people by being both from New Zealand and having dark hair in real life) has been reflecting on his Boys‘ villain Homelander – and while he does have a layered and nuanced arc that might encourage some sympathy – Starr still doesn’t think he deserves a happy ending.
Speaking to Collider, Starr said; “I think Homelander’s happy ending would be him annihilating everyone in the world and sitting there in a bloody wasteland on his own, with no one to mess with him. I don’t think there’s a redemption story for Homelander. I wouldn’t really wanna see that, to be honest. I don’t think there’s any intention of doing that either.”
If Homelander doesn’t get a happy ending in The Boys, does that therefore mean he’ll have to be killed off eventually? “As for his demise, I don’t know. Every time I try to pick out what might happen in the future, I’m wrong, so I’ve given up speculating. I’m just like, “You know what? I’ll leave that for the writers and spare myself the embarrassment of being wrong, again and again and again.”
The Boys was created by Eric Kripke and stars Antony Starr’s fellow Kiwi Karl Urban as Billy Butcher. The fourth season of the popular superhero series reportedly starts filming as soon as August. The season three finale, called The Instant White-Hot Wild airs on July 8.
Redemption arcs for villains are always going to be controversial – look at Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Ben Solo (Adam Driver) in the Star Wars universe. But just because Starr acts Homelander so well, and we can clearly see the cracks of insecurity and vulnerability under all of his bravado, doesn’t necessarily mean he needs redeeming!
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