The Boys is one of the most controversial superhero shows, and The Boys has also given us a bad guy with even more evil at his heart than many of the best movie villains. Homelander is, it has to be said, a vile piece of work.
Antony Starr has been part of The Boys cast since the first season of one of the best TV series on Amazon Prime. The strength of his performance as Homelander has given the character a strange cult of devoted fans on social media. And Starr can’t really understand why.
Ahead of The Boys season 4 release date later this year, Starr told the LA Times that he finds the Homelander fandom very unusual indeed. Sorry guys, but you’re watching the show wrong.
Starr said: “There’s a very strange thing that’s happened with the character. Though he is clearly not a good guy, a lot of people have glommed onto him. There’s a weird element out there that actually kind of idolize him. I’ve seen some shit on Twitter and I’m like: ‘Wait, what? You are missing the point entirely’.”
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t be backing Homelander’s despicable actions. However enjoyable the dark side of The Boys is, it shouldn’t have you siding with a tyrant modeled on Donald Trump. At least it keeps everyone talking about one of TV’s best thriller series.
As Starr puts it, “One of the things about the show that I’m really proud of is that we do unapologetically provoke conversation.”
That’s certainly true, with The Boys doing plenty of good work to show that superheroes can be a lot edgier than we’ve come to expect from the dozens of MCU movies and DC movies over the years.
Speaking of which, there are new movies from both universes in cinemas right now. So check out our The Flash review and our Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 review to find out what we thought of them. Or, for more on The Boys, read our Eric Kripke interview and find out why Starr doesn’t want a Homelander redemption story.
We’ve also got all of the information you need on the best movies for superhero fans this year, including The Marvels release date and the Aquaman 2 release date.