Homelander Is Not Your Hero, Even THE BOYS Star Antony Starr Is Confused Why Some Fans Think He Is
At this point, it's no secret that The Boys' Homelander is a complete and utter monster. He’s committed war crimes, abandoned innocents to die mid-air, lasered through bodies without hesitation, and manipulates those around him with terrifying ease. And yet… some fans are out here treating him like he's the misunderstood protagonist of the show.
Antony Starr, who plays the milk-drinking, god-complex-riddled "supe," doesn’t get it. During an Entertainment Weekly actors’ roundtable, he said:
“We had a bunch of guys that we all kind of knocked them down a little [bit] on social media to say, ‘This guy is not the hero of any story,’”
His tone is less amused and more concerned. It’s not that Starr doesn’t understand the appeal of a compelling villain, Homelander is charismatic, terrifying, and unpredictable.
But some viewers have blurred the lines between appreciating great acting and actually rooting for the guy. He added:
“They were really glorifying him, they loved him. Which is surreal. What I didn’t expect was that people would be so conflicted around it and, you know, finding themselves finding empathy for this monster.”
It’s worth remembering that The Boys was never subtle about who Homelander is. He’s the face of unchecked power, nationalism warped beyond recognition, and narcissism wrapped in a cape.
The show, for all its gore and satire, is constantly screaming, “Don’t look up to this guy!” But meme culture has a way of rewriting intent, and a perfectly timed Homelander GIF can suddenly feel like a mic drop instead of a red flag.
As the series barrels toward its explosive finale in Season 5, Starr is promising the kind of chaos that fans have come to expect, and then some. He told Collider:
"Every time I think I know what’s gonna happen, something else happens, so this was no exception, these last scripts.
“I’m six deep, I haven’t seen the penultimate and finale yet, but I know what happens and I think fans are gonna be either surprised or shocked, depending on their nervous system. But very, very entertained.”
So as we prepare for the end, maybe it’s a good time to remember that Homelander is not an anti-hero. He’s not a tragic figure. He’s not “misunderstood.” Starr wants you to remember that he’s the villain of the story.