Antony Starr has some stern words for Homelander’s fanbase.
The New Zealand actor has made a name for himself by starring as one of the most intriguing villains on television in Prime Video’s The Boys.
As The Los Angeles Times describes, Homeland is a patriotic superhero who doubles as 'an Aryan super-sociopath, a gleaming Mr America with a license to kill’.
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During an interview with the outlet, Starr spoke of his character, which raises the question: "What if Superman were a narcissistic sociopath?”
Starr acknowledged while he plays one of the most loathsome characters, he’s surprised that Homelander still has fans out there.
“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,” he said.
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“I’ve seen some s***t on Twitter and I’m like, ‘Wait, What? You are missing the point entirely!’”
The actor also disclosed that showrunner Eric Kripke based the leader of the Seven on former President Donald Trump.
“‘He’s Trump!’ — [but] if you made it too directly Trump, it becomes very two-dimensional,” Starr said.
“I understand exactly what Eric means, and [Homelander murdering a protester before a crowd] was his ‘Fifth Avenue’ moment, 100 per cent. But with the speechy stuff, if you want someone who can string a sentence together, who does that better than...Obama?”
In the series finale, Homelander had a particularly shocking scene that saw the villain introduce his son to a crowd of fans.
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However, when a protestor threw a can at them, the superhero leader uses his laser eyes to kill the civilian, which is followed by a collective gasp from onlookers.
Instead of the moment being his downfall, the crowd began cheering for Homeland, which is eerily reminiscent of Trump’s supporters, according to Kripke.
He told Deadline: “Could we take Homelander so far as to literally kill somebody on Fifth Avenue and then be applauded for it?”
“It’s funny. It’s like at the time we wrote it, we felt it was like a little satirically pushed, but it is true that the more awful politicians are behaving, you know, the more popular they’re becoming with their fan base.”
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He added that seasons one and two initially followed the idea that ‘the government or Trump’ would scare people with this idea of the 'outside' and other people coming into the country.
However, season three strays away from this concept.
“The great replacement theory is here. At some point, it turned to who you should be afraid of is your neighbor and they’re going to rip you apart, because they support Hollywood pedophiles, or drinking adrenochrome,” he added.
Topics: News, Film and TV, The Boys, Amazon Prime