The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke reveals that the series is building up to Homelander becoming a complete sociopath. The Boys is a dark and satirical superhero series that premiered on Amazon Prime in 2019. Season 3 is currently in session and has received critical acclaim, as well as a renewal for a fourth season. The series follows a group of vigilantes who are on a mission to expose the truth about the corruption of the conglomerate Vought and their equally corrupted elite superhero group known as the Seven.
Homelander (Antony Starr) is the leader of the Seven, and his downward spiral has been evident since the beginning of The Boys. Homelander is the strongest superhero in world and puts up a good front as a noble and heroic man. However, just below the surface is deep narcissism, arrogance, paranoia, insensitivity, and recklessness. He cares little for the number of lives lost when it comes to getting what he wants. At the end of The Boys season 1, it was revealed Homelander also has a child, which has only added to his instability.
In an interview with Writers Guild of America West, Kripke teases the future of The Boys and reveals that the series is building up Homelander's sociopathic tendencies. As the corrupted superhero further descends into his poorest qualities, The Boys will enter a unique era. Check out Kripke's statement below:
You could track the meta-mythology of the series essentially as the slow unraveling of Homelander. So the writers know—and Antony [Starr, who plays Homelander] is a big part of this as well—that, eventually, whenever the series reaches its climax, this guy is going to go full sociopath, and he has to be stopped before some kind of apocalyptic event. That’s what we’re building towards.
So then the question, when you back into that as a writer [is] what are the guardrails that are stopping him from doing that? Who is he, as a person, that he doesn’t just go off and destroy the world today? What are the things that he needs? And then how do we slowly peel those away from him one after the other, after the other?
So he isn’t so much evolving as he’s devolving, I would say. Right now, he still needs love. He still needs the adoration of fans and the approval and love of his son. There are all of these things that he requires that, if he became a true monster, he wouldn’t have. So we’re spending all the seasons teaching him that he doesn’t need those things one after another, after another. And then once he finally realizes he doesn’t want love or approval from anybody, then obviously, that’s when the big end game starts.
Viewers have definitely seen Homelander do some pretty terrible things during The Boys' run, so it is not hard to imagine him going completely rogue and having a catastrophic impact on the world. Homelander is a rapist and a murderer, just to list a few of his crimes, and once even let an entire plane filled with people fall out of the sky due to his recklessness. However, even with all the crimes Homelander has committed throughout The Boys, it is always swept under the rug. He still doesn't quite want the world to see him for who he is. Once he reaches the point where he doesn't care anymore, then viewers will meet an even more dangerous side of Homelander.
So far in The Boys season 3, Homelander's mental deterioration can clearly be seen. He is definitely starting to feel the toll of the events taking place and is maybe even feeling threatened. Meanwhile, Homelander's powers have often been thought to be comparable to that of DC's Superman. Hence, Homelander certainly could wreck havoc on Earth if he went rogue, and what would stop him? In the Boys comic books, the only known thing that could kill Homelander was a deranged clone of himself - Black Noir. However, The Boys doesn't seem to be closely following this comic book arc, so how Homelander could be stopped is a mystery. This uncertainty definitely raises the thrill of watching The Boys and waiting for Homelander to snap.
The Boys season 3 releases new episodes Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Writers Guild of America West