[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Boys.]

The Big Picture

The Prime Video series ‘The Boys’ has started shooting its final season, but Season 4 is still in focus at award shows and for critics.
Show creator Eric Kripke praises Antony Starr’s villainous performance as Homelander.
The series explores the consequences of unchecked power, corruption, and accountability.

The Boys has already started shooting its fifth and final season, but until it’s wrapped and ready for fans to watch, the focus is still on Season 4, as various award shows and critics groups shine a spotlight on various series and performances from the last year. While the blood and gore are plentiful, so is the emotional trauma, as Homelander (Antony Starr) and Butcher (Karl Urban) remain on a collision course towards each other that can’t possibly end with sunshine and rainbows.

Before we find out how it all will end, Collider got the opportunity to have an FYC chat with series creator Eric Kripke and Starr, who really does deserve an Emmy already for his brilliantly villainous performance that contains enough of a sliver of vulnerability that you can almost feel for the psychopathic Supe. During the interview, the two sat together and talked about the incredible magic trick that Starr pulls off in keeping the audience with him on the roller coaster that is Homelander, the open communication between them as they shape the character, how the absurdity of it all just works so well, doing awful things but for a reason, how the end of Season 4 evolved into what it became, maintaining their denial that the end is near, and never wanting to become the thing that they’re poking fun at.

Antony Starr Is Doing Some of the Best Work on TV As Homelander in ‘The Boys’
Image via Prime Video

Collider: Eric, when we were speaking weekly, as the episodes were coming out this season, as part of our conversation about the fourth episode of Season 4 and Homelander’s journey back into his past, you said, “It’s long overdue, just give Ant an Emmy already.” Since every artist is probably their own worst and harshest critic, what do you see in his performance?

ERIC KRIPKE: Both of us are terrible at absorbing praise, so this will be very uncomfortable for him. I think Ant is doing some of the best work on TV, period. He’s an all-timer, in terms of the great antagonists, and he does it by very seriously attacking that character’s humanity and foibles and psychology. It’s really collaborative, from the script stage on. I really welcome Ant’s perspective on the character and the thoughts that he has because his batting average of being right is crazy high. And then, he shows up on set, taking risks and trying things that put him right on the razor’s edge, and that’s where the really interesting stuff happens. But I don’t know if people totally understand the amount of diligence and work and passion and hours that go into preparing for that moment when you can try to capture lightning. That comes from an incredible amount of building and thinking and discussing. He busts his ass to deliver this character. It’s fascinating how you can take a character who’s as sociopathic a wacko as Homelander and he can bring you into the experience and make you understand why Homelander is doing what he’s doing. That’s just an incredible magic trick.

Related Eric Kripke Is Doing the Right Thing In Ending ‘The Boys’ After Five Seasons Prime’s polarizing anti-superero series, The Boys, is coming to an end after five seasons bringing the depraved characters of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s graphic comic to the small screen in an explosive way; and, in a lot of ways, series creator Eric Kripke is doing the right thing. This is not to say that The Boys is a terrible show. It’s far from that. When it premiered in 2019, it was such a breath of fresh air from the sanitized nature of the MCU, and we finally got a chance to see how fearful superheroes can be if they used their powers only to satisfy themselves, rather than for the good of the world. It was a story that meant to be told, but not for long; and in an interview with Collider’s own Christina Radish, he said that he didn’t want to burn the show out for longer than it had to. “The thing about The Boys is that it’s punk rock, and it hurts extra hard when punk rockers sell out,’ Kripke told Collider, and I perfectly respect and agree with that. It’s always best

Obviously, that episode was an example of things changing because the actor portraying the character for four seasons saw things differently than maybe it had been written on the page. Has that always been the case with the two of you? Was that open communication always there or was it something that grew as you both realized how much you understood and really got this character?

KRIPKE: Both. These things always grow, as you get to know each other more. One of the great things I love about television is that you can see what an actor is doing in real time, and then start adjusting the scripts to accentuate that. I always say that you’re tailoring a suit. When he first puts it on, it fits but it can fit better. And as it goes on, we get to know the actor and the actor gets to know the character, so that’s a really fun part. From the beginning, I’ve welcomed Ant and all the actors’ input. I’m not one of those guys who gets defensive about that. I’ll take any good idea where I can get it. I’m always like, “Bro, your name’s still gonna be on it. They’re not gonna say, ‘Executive producer, you, and all the actors.’ You get the fucking credit for it. Why wouldn’t you take every good idea you can possibly get?” It’s so wild to me. It’s my job to know the whole chess board, and it’s their job to know their pieces. They will catch things that I will miss because Ant is thinking about Homelander through every script and nothing else, so he’s gonna catch subtleties and have ideas that I’m not gonna have because I’m too scattered. That’s always something that I think is an important part of crafting a good show and a good character.

Antony Starr Never Wanted Homelander To Stop Evolving in ‘The Boys’
Image via Prime Video

Ant, did you always feel that kind of connection to the character from the beginning or did you get more vocal and have those ideas, the more you really got his psyche?

ANTONY STARR: First of all, what comes out on the page is pretty great, so it’s not about changing things as much as adding to it. For me, at least, it’s a different creative process whereby, every now and then, we might tweak something, or whatever. But a lot of the time, something will inspire and I’ll go, “Okay, that makes me think this. What if we add this? What if we did this?” Sometimes it doesn’t make sense because I don’t have the God’s eye view, but sometimes it does, and that’s great. When we started off, I only had two scenes in the pilot. We got a lot of scripts first up. I think we got six, so there was a pretty good sense of where it was going and what it was doing. Like Eric said before, it’s literally, in this case, like putting on a new suit. If you had told me a few years before this that I would be in spandex, prancing around with the American flag on as a cape, I would have laughed and said, “No, you jest.” But here we are. It’s taken a minute for me because I’m not American and there are the elements of it that are the classic Captain America/Superman type. So, it’s been a journey of growth and learning and collaboration. For me, it’s perfect because I don’t wanna be on a show where you’re like, “All right, we’ve got the character. Now, we’ve just gotta go from case to case to case, each week.” It’s a credit to all those people that do that. Good for them. But I’m much more interested in a story and character relationship evolution. I want things to evolve. I want it to be growing and breathing and living. We get that in spades on this show, and it’s a treat, man. It’s awesome.

This show has to dig into the characters because they’re all so awful and doing such awful things that we have to have some sort of connection to them, in some way.

STARR: A lot of the time they’re doing the awful things for a reason. One of my favorite scenes … when was the whale?

KRIPKE: Oh, that was Season 2, episode four.

STARR: I remember reading that and going, “We’ve gone too far. It’s The Deep riding in on a whale.” It just seemed so absurd. This has been a learning curve for me. After that, I was like, “Don’t judge anything, just go with it.” I wasn’t there on the day for what Chace [Crawford] did, but when I saw it with the VFX and everything was all sewn together, it was one of my favorite scenes because actually it’s The Deep doing his very, very best, as only he can, to get back in The Seven. He’s really busting his ass. It’s a character-driven moment of absurdity. And then, Butcher driving the boat through the whale is a very Butcher thing to do. The moment is actually anchored in character and story, and I love that about this show.

2:48 Related VIDEO: These Are the Characters Most Likely to Die in ‘The Boys’ Season 5 With Homelander’s reign of terror gearing up for an epic conclusion, who will make it out alive?

At the end of the season, Homelander is very much in charge. He’s won. Is he actually confident and comfortable in that fact or are his own insecurities always simmering under the surface?

STARR: There’s a funny moment when Sage comes in and he’s broken because he lost. He screwed up and the house of cards collapsed. But then, plot foiled, and Sage comes in, and presto, everything is flipped on its head. The speech at the end with Calhoun, because of this character that we’ve created, I was like, “There’s no way he’s gonna sit on his ass and accept that someone else is in control of this. He’s gonna twist the narrative in his head and spin it, so he’s like, ‘Look what I did. Ultimately, it was me all along. I hired her. If she wasn’t there, it wouldn’t have happened.’” This rabbit hole narrative that he would have gone down to find his way through to the light on the other side, where he just pushes Calhoun away and takes over the press conference, pretty much says it all. He’s weeping because he’s failed, gets saved, spins it, and then egotistically takes control. That’s the character in a nutshell, really.

Antony Starr and Eric Kripke Are in Denial About ‘The Boys’ Ending

What is it like to know that you’re almost to the end of the series? I can’t imagine, after all the time you spend thinking about these characters, are you trying to not think about the fact that you won’t be thinking about these characters, sooner rather than later?

KRIPKE: I’m fortunate, in that I get to maintain my denial for quite a while because I’m so busy right now. Just the amount of work, it’s so busy that I think somewhere in the middle of the season, it’s gonna hit me, and hit me really emotionally. I’ve been willfully denying it. It hasn’t totally sunk in. That will be hard. We’re both having fun and absolute terror in the writers’ room, at the same time. It’s so fun to have all guardrails off. Anything can truly happen. You’re not beholden to maintaining any storyline or character beyond this season. Nothing and no one is safe, and that’s really liberating and fun. At the same time, I’ll say that you can count the amount of truly great series finales on one hand. It’s so hard to land that plane, much less we’re landing eight different planes. I am appropriately respectful and have an appropriate amount of trepidation for how hard that job is. I’m not walking into it cocky at all. I’m walking into it like, “Okay, let’s second and triple guess every single decision because we really wanna land this plane.” Game of Thrones was an amazing show. When you think of the amount of work and effort and craft that went into that show, and all anyone talks about is the finale. I’m just like, “Fuck!” It’s really exciting, but it’s scary too.

STARR: Good luck with that.

KRIPKE: Yeah, thank you. Once I have my dragon come in and burn down the conference room, I’ve gotta make sure I stick that moment.

Related Eric Kripke Says “The World Has Changed” To Reflect ‘The Boys,’ Not the Other Way Around The show’s creator reflects on making “one of the most current shows on television.”

Have you shared the end with the cast? Is that something you want to hold back as long as possible?

KRIPKE: I have not. We’re far enough along that I can pitch out the character wide arcs, but they’re the emotional acrs, so the actors can start working on what their journey is and some of the twists and turns of what goes where. Frankly, some of them we’re still working out, but we have a solid sense of where they all go, emotionally.

According to Antony Starr, Homelander Is the Jaws of ‘The Boys’
Image via Prime Video

Ant, do you feel sad to be leaving Homelander behind soon, and does it feel weird to feel sad about that, knowing he’s an awful person who does awful things?

STARR: I have a lot of empathy for this guy. I have to.

KRIPKE: It’s your job.

STARR: It’s my job not to judge. I’ve got to see him as fully three-dimensional. He’s still the villain. He’s still the bad guy. He’s Jaws in the show, but we wanna know what makes Jaws tick.

KRIPKE: What was Jaws’ childhood like? What made him such a son of a bitch?

STARR: No, I love the character. Where we can go with this character and where we’ve been, you don’t get to do that that often. I got to do scenes with myself in the mirror. I got to work with this incredible cast. It’s up and down, it’s round. It’s really just an amazing job and an amazing character. As I’m saying that, I’m thinking, “Oh, wow, I haven’t really thought about it coming to a close, and I’m not going to right now.” I’ve got work to do, so I’ll focus on that, and then it’ll probably hit me like a ton of breaks at the end. But I love the show and I love the character.

Related ‘The Boys’ Season 5 Just Added This ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Star Trek’ Alum He’s not throwing away his shot.

There’s been a lot of talk about the reaction to the character and how there is a group of people that watch the show confused that Homelander is the villain. Is that also kind like, “Job well done,” because you are presenting a character who people are supposed to see that way within the show, just maybe not in real life?

STARR: I still think those people are just joking. I think they’re just fucking with everyone. I find it impossible to believe that people would not see through that.

KRIPKE: But to your point though, Ant does such an amazing job of bringing you inside Homelander’s experience and making you feel something for him. Even in episode 404 when he is torturing all of those people, you sympathize with him, as well you should. That’s the point of what we’re saying in the show, where even the most horrible people have reasons. I don’t know how to just write, and I don’t think it would be fun to play, just crazy people. If they go, “I do it because I’m evil and because I’m crazy,” I don’t understand that. I’m always like, “Well, but why? What gave you that skewed worldview? Where did that come from?” Psychology is just more interesting to me, and I think that’s what he does. But yet, to that end, I don’t know how anyone has been watching the show from the first episode when he murders a 12-year-old boy and says to himself, “That’s my guy.”

Eric Kripke Never Wants ‘The Boys’ To Become the Thing They’ve Been Satirizing
Image via Prime Video

Eric, you’re closing this chapter in The Boys universe, but this universe is not ending. Do you see the possibilities of not just Gen V, but this world getting even bigger?

KRIPKE: We’re gonna look at the chips we have on the table right now. I live in absolute terror of becoming the thing we’ve been satirizing for five years. The thing about The Boys is that it’s punk rock, and it hurts extra hard when punk rockers sell out. I’m really working hard to not sell out. We do these shows because we really care about them and we’re passionate about them, and they can tell fresh stories that we can’t tell in The Boys and not just be about rapid expansion but be very careful and mindful about the choices we’re making and being able to defend why we’re making them. I worry about that every single day. I just want people to say, maybe it’s for them and maybe it isn’t for them, but gotta hand it to them, they maintain a consistent level of quality. That’s what we’re trying to do. It’s a tricky balance, for sure, because there’s no doubt that we’re a franchise now, but we’re trying to do it with as much integrity as Hollywood could muster, which isn’t much, but it’s a little.

The Boys is a drama series that explores the darker aspects of superhero culture, portraying a world where superheroes abuse their powers rather than use them for good. Centered around a vigilante group aiming to control these corrupt heroes, the series delves into themes of power, corruption, and accountability. The show features a complex narrative with multifaceted characters, offering an unfiltered look at the consequences of unchecked power.Release Date July 25, 2019 Creator Cast Karl Urban , Jack Quaid , Antony Starr , Erin Moriarty , Jessie T. Usher , Laz Alonso , Chace Crawford , Tomer Capone , Karen Fukuhara , Nathan Mitchell , Colby Minifie , Dominique McElligott , Claudia Doumit , Cameron Crovetti , Nneka Elliott , Laila Robins , Shantel VanSanten , Aya Cash , Giancarlo Esposito , Jordana Lajoie , Katy Breier , Matthew Edison , Jim Beaver , Elisabeth Shue , Jensen Ackles , Simon Pegg , Susan Heyward , Valorie Curry , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Ann Cusack , Nicola Correia Damude , Christian Keyes , Sabrina Saudin , Malcolm Barrett , Liyou Abere , Jennifer Esposito , David Reale , Frances Turner Seasons 4 Expand

The Boys is available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the Season 4 trailer:

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