Get ready for an entirely new Homelander in The Boys season 3. Based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Amazon's The Boys flips the entire superhero genre on its head... and then kicks it in the groin for good measure. Instead of morally resolute purveyors of justice, the superheroes in The Boys are corporate celebrities who treat a rescue mission like a photo opportunity. While most of Vought's heroes in The Boys are self-interested charlatans, a select few go the extra mile - none more so than Homelander, the company's top hero and leader of the world-famous superhero group, the Seven.
Homelander's public persona is a perfect concoction of patriotism, public pandering and pantomime. Beneath the facade, however, Homelander is a man who will stop at nothing to elevate his own stock and standing in the world. Wiping out a mayor and his family to protect Vought's secrets, letting a plane full of passengers die just to save face, giving terrorists superpowers to justify Vought's contract with the US military. And that's just season 1... Homelander is utterly devoid of empathy, and earned a nemesis for life in Billy Butcher after raping his wife, Becca.
At the root of Homelander's fragile psyche is his troubled laboratory upbringing, and The Boys season 2 peels back the layers to reveal something vaguely resembling an actual human underneath the catalog of despicable acts. The Boys' season 2 finale goes further, fundamentally altering Homelander's position in the show, and promising a brand new character for season 3.
Homelander Always Had Life His Own Way
Vought's Jonah Vogelbaum made a grave error, believing a difficult childhood would toughen-up a young Homelander. Vogelbaum's goal was to create the world's greatest superhero, and the scientist mistakenly believed his prized test subject should be deprived of love in order to achieve this. Although Homelander, or "John" as he was known then, endured a sterile, harsh upbringing, life became much easier post-puberty. As a member of the Seven, Homelander has been adored by the public and doted upon by his employers, afforded all of life's trappings without any of the consequences. Beyond being mollycoddled, Homelander has also been given free reign over the world. Whenever he rapes a colleague, kills a bystander, or conspires with terrorists, Vought happily sign Homelander a free pass and cover up his considerable mess. Homelander is the ultimate man-child - spoiled, egotistical, and wielding unimaginable power.
The Boys season 1 sees Homelander at the peak of his influence. The entire world bends to his will, from Madelyn Stillwell's oedipal manipulations to other Seven members maintaining a fearful silence. Even when Homelander cracks open the Becca Butcher conspiracy and meets the son Vought tried to keep hidden, no one dare stand in his way, proving beyond doubt that Homelander's rule is law.
In The Boys season 2, Homelander's crown slips after a series of public faux-pas, causing his popularity to take a nosedive. With Stormfront's help, Homelander rejuvenates his reputation, but this brief period of weakness proves just how heavily the deck was stacked in Homelander's favor to begin with. Or it was, until the paradigm shift in the final episode of The Boys season 2.
Maeve Taking Control Of The Seven Makes Homelander More Dangerous
Just when everything was coming up Homelander, the girls decided to "get it done." By the end of The Boys season 2, Stormfront has been outed as a Nazi and reduced to a stump, while Queen Maeve finally takes a stand, using the plane crash footage from season 1 to blackmail Homelander and slap a leash on the blue-eyed ego maniac. Taking full advantage of Homelander's lust for public approval, Maeve suddenly finds herself in the driving seat. Not only does Maeve demand Homelander leave Ryan Butcher alone, she also forces the exoneration of Starlight and brings an end to the general cloud of misery that Homelander casts over the Seven. As The Boys season 2 closes, a humbled Homelander is forced to relinquish control of the Seven, as Starlight reveals her intention to fix the corrupt superhero outfit from inside. In many ways, this is as close as The Boys gets to a happy ending. Homelander brought to heel, Starlight becoming a top superhero on her own terms, and Ryan Butcher living in relative safety.
Unfortunately, that happy ending rests wholly upon Queen Maeve's leverage. If Homelander strays from his agreed terms, Maeve will release the plane footage, ruining Homelander's status as a beloved public figure, but he's hardly the type to accept his fate and hand Maeve the keys to the kingdom. The Boys season 2 demonstrated the depths Homelander would plumb to stay on top of the pile - aligning with a Nazi being just the tip of a grim iceberg. How far would Homelander go to stop Maeve blackmailing him into compliance? Knowing Maeve has the plane footage primed and ready to be released, Homelander is unable to make any rash moves, but only a fool would believe the Seven's leader isn't feverishly planning to reassert his dominance.
Ryan's Rejection Of Homelander Destroyed His Dream
The Boys' season 2 finale also changes Homelander through his brief, ill-fated attempt at fatherhood. When Homelander swooped into Ryan's life at the end of The Boys season 1, viewers naturally feared the worst. These misgivings seemed justified when Homelander cruelly pushed Ryan from a rooftop to make the boy fly. But, very slowly, Homelander eventually develops somewhat of a paternal instinct. The progression begins with Homelander accepting Ryan's need for a mother, and that subsequently develops into heartfelt father-son talks, where the emotionally-bulletproof Homelander shows weakness to his son in a rare display of vulnerability. Crucially, Homelander even eschews a baying crowd of adoring fans when Ryan becomes overwhelmed - putting his son's needs before his own.
The Boys season 2 delves deeper into Homelander's motivations. Yes, he's a self-serving sociopath with little to no regard for humanity, but good PR isn't Homelander's only concern. Being the most powerful man in the world is a lonely job and Homelander yearns for a genuine equal who can join him in lording over the planet's lowly non-supes. No one has come close to filling this gap, and the absence of family is a lingering source of trauma for Homelander, but the arrival of Ryan finally balanced the equation - an equally powerful (perhaps more powerful) flesh and blood relative. Then Homelander's dream of a father-son partnership went up in smoke. Although it was Queen Maeve who ensured Ryan's freedom, the boy had already rejected his dad, siding with Billy Butcher instead. In that moment, Homelander's emotional goal died. He can court popularity, manipulate his way to power and intimidate those who stand in his way, but no superpowers can make Ryan love his father, and Homelander is lonelier than ever heading into The Boys season 3.
Homelander Will Lose Control In Season 3
Homelander is now a wild, wounded animal backed into a corner. Ryan rejected his father, destroying Homelander's dream of a companion. Then Queen Maeve's blackmail pushed Homelander into a cage, threatening ruin should he ever stray out of line. Considering he once burned down a movie set because his girlfriend was a few minutes late, Homelander evidently doesn't respond well to hearing the word "no," and when The Boys season 3 begins, the influence he enjoyed throughout seasons 1 and 2 will be hugely diminished. His only solution? To lose control completely.
Homelander's sanity became increasingly strained throughout The Boys season 2, with constant hints that the world's strongest supe was only one bad day away from running wild. When Victoria Neuman's protesters challenged Homelander, he imagined slaughtering the entire crowd with laser vision. Homelander's bloody slaughter of Vought soldiers is unnervingly unhinged, even for him, and the reaction to Stormfront's defeat is the face of a broken man. Finally, Homelander pleasures himself from a rooftop onto the unsuspecting population below, verbally affirming that he's still in complete control. Although this scene was originally planned for The Boys season 1, the splashdown works better in season 2 as another blow to Homelander's mental stability. Publicly, Homelander ends The Boys season 2 with a typically stiff upper lip, maintaining the illusion of a man in control. Alone and facing the New York skyline, Homelander's stiff lower limb proves his psyche is more strained than ever.
Behind the smile, Homelander is unleashed, desperate and caught on the back foot. Queen Maeve and the Boys will no doubt be the first victims of Homelander's newfound insanity in The Boys season 3.