Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV | Tagged: prime video, the boys

The Boys Embraces The Hate; Starr Heads Out for Final Season Filming?

Showrunner Eric Kripke's The Boys embraces the hate in a Variety FYC ad; it looks like Antony Starr is heading out for final season filming.

When we last checked in on how things were going with the fifth and final season of Showrunner Eric Kripke's The Boys, he and series star Antony Starr were offering some early insights into how the dynamic between Homelander (Starr) and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) will be explored further. Now, with filming set to get underway next week, we've got two updates to pass along. Since we're already discussing filming, based on Starr's Instagram post from earlier today, it looks like he's getting ready to head out to start work ("So long for a while LA and the dorks"). But before we get to that, we've got a follow-up to a great awards season campaign move from earlier this month that saw the hit streaming series embracing the hits it took from trolls on social media, one that elevated things to the level of a full-page ad in Variety.

Here's a look at how the Prime Video series turned the hate into one of the best awards campaign ads we've seen in a long time – and big thanks to Culture Crave for sharing. Following that, we have a look at Starr's post, seemingly signaling that he's heading out for filming on the final season:

Here's a look back at what Kripke and the Prime Video series' social media accounts had to share earlier this month, already making it clear that they're more than happy to embrace the hate – followed by a look back at an opinion piece we wrote back on July 17, 2024, about how the fourth season finally became an eye-opener for Homelander fans (and how they were not happy with it):

The Boys: Homelander Fans Finally Get The Point & They're Not Happy

I was originally going to write a review of the first three episodes of Prime Video and Showrunner Eric Kripke's fourth season of The Boys. It was going to include how directors Phil Sgriccia, Karen Gaviola & Fred Toye, and writers David Reed, Jessica Chou & Ellie Monahan offered us a dark and twisted start to the streaming series' penultimate season that raised the stakes in some pretty surprising ways. I was going to address how the series continues to expertly balance the insane with the heartfelt – balancing the absurdity with some truly hard realities. From there, I would've touched upon what amazing additions to the cast Susan Heyward's Sister Sage, Valorie Curry's Firecracker, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Joe Kessler, and Rosemarie DeWitt's Daphne Campbell (Hughie's mother) are – especially Curry, who holds her own on the screen in ways that have us forgetting that she hasn't been with the series from the start.

We would've continued by praising the ensemble cast for the way each of them has found a way to evolve their characters in ways that connect with viewers – from Butcher's (Karl Urban) & A-Train's (Jessie T. Usher) respective attempts at a redemption arc and Kimiko's (Karen Fukuhara) efforts to literally kill her past to Hughie's (Jack Quaid) efforts to reconnect with his mother and Annie/Starlight (Erin Moriarty) being forced to confront the sins of her past. I would note that Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, and Cameron Crovetti all deserve to be noted for their efforts – and how Antony Starr continues flicking lit matches at Emmy voters, reminding them through his work that his Homelander might just be the best thing going in terms of what Starr brings to the character and how that continues to show in some truly unique ways.

Instead, I'm going to take a moment to address those out there who've been review-bombing the streaming series. With The Boys Season 4 currently sitting at 95% with critics and 52% with the "audience" on Rotten Tomatoes, there's clearly a serious disconnect – one that can be easily explained if you check out the comments in the "audience section." Just so there's no confusion? Review-bombing a series because it's "too woke" or "too left-leaning" or nonsense like that simply because it doesn't speak to your narrow-minded "sensibilities" is bad enough. But there's something especially sad and pathetic when it takes them four seasons to finally figure out that they – much like Homelander, who they worship as some kind of role model – aren't the "heroes" of this story. Never have been, never will be. And yes, Kripke has made it crystal clear that there are a ton of horrific metaphors connecting to ex-reality shows & POTUS and now-convicted felon Donald Trump – and none of them are good.

Is it fair that the show's fourth season has to suffer because Homelander/Trump lovers can't take a ten-ton hint? No – but unfortunately, all we can do is report on efforts like review-bombing so folks know how haters try to manipulate the system to peddle their steaming piles of nonsense. That said, I do think I figured out why it took so long for them to realize that they weren't in on the joke but were, in fact, the joke – aside from the obvious. Over the past three seasons, it was easy for them to write off what Homelander did because they either felt the same way or because it never really hit them personally.

But  "Department of Dirty Tricks" changed the game for them – and they didn't like it. Of course, you know the scene I'm talking about – when Homelander orders The Deep (Crawford), A-Train (Usher), and Black Noir II (Mitchell) to brutally kill three of his biggest supporters as a way of setting up Annie's/Starlight's followers. Homelander can barely fake interest in his speech to them about their "important sacrifices" before having someone else do his dirty work – because the leader of The Seven sees them as beneath him and not worthy of his personal handling. It looks like that ended up being the final straw for them – a truth bomb that blew up a little too close to home this time. But you can't blame The Boys for being "The Boys" – they didn't know it would take some folks so long to finally catch on…

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