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

The Boys: Having Empathy for "Monster" Homelander Is "Surreal": Starr

The Boys star Antony Starr is amazed that anyone would still be a fan of a "monster" like Homelander after everything he's said and done.

From condemning an entire plane's worth of passengers to a grisly fate to green-lighting the wholesale slaughter of every non-supe in Vought tower, The Boys Showrunner Eric Kripke and series star Antony Starr have proven time and time again that Starr's Homelander isn't the hero of the story and that he's not someone to be admired and emulated. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And yet. During Entertainment Weekly's Awardist Drama Actors Roundtable with Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus), Tramell Tillman (Severance), Bradley Whitford (The Handmaid's Tale), Marisa Abela (Industry), and Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters), Starr shared how it still amazes him how anyone would still side with Homelander at this point.

"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 shared during the roundtable discussion. "They were really glorifying him; they loved him. Which is surreal." In fact, based on how the character is introduced during the first season alone, Starr is still surprised that there would be so many folks siding with someone who would despise them in real life. "What I didn't expect was that people would be so conflicted around it and, you know, finding themselves finding empathy for this monster," he added.

The Boys Cast Tease Season 5, Discuss Ending Series "On Our Terms"

Starr, Nathan Mitchell, Jack Quaid, Susan Heyward, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, Tomer Capone, Jessie T. Usher, Erin Moriarty, and Chace Crawford took part in Amazon's Prime Video FYC event earlier this month, where they had some interesting insights to offer regarding what viewers can expect from the final run.

"There are some things that are coming in Season 5 that you're not going to have in your bingo card," Mitchell shared while speaking with Deadline Hollywood. "I look at the last two seasons … like an accordion. One piece of the accordion is going out, and then this is the compression going back in. There was a lot of setup in Season 4 for Season 5. Everything is gunning towards that climactic end. So it's exciting at the moment because we're filming all that," Starr added.

With regards to Kripke's decision to end The Boys after five seasons, there is a collective respect for the showrunner making the call when he felt it was best for the series. "Every time, it's the same reaction. 'No! Who do I have to murder!?' And that's a good sign. You don't want the opposite, where they're like, 'Oh thank God.'" Quaid explained. Minifie added, "Sometimes things go on too long and then it starts to run away from you and you don't get to tell the story you want to tell. When the announcement came out, Kripke said we get to end it on our terms, which I think is a really beautiful thing. The best stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Knowing the end is in five, we were able to tell the middle really well."

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