While the season finale of The Boys revealed the incoming threat of terrorist villains, the real mastermind has never stopped being Homelander and Vought Industries. When season 2 of the hit Amazon show premieres on September 4, a new superhero with an insidious agenda emerges and further emphasizes the theme.
Showrunner Eric Kripke sat down with Screen Rant to discuss the messages he wished to convey in the second season, and how they will be reflected in the storylines of Stormfront and Homelander.
In season two, there's the supervillain terrorists all over the world that have been activated by Homelander. However, you never really get the sense that they're more dangerous than their creators. Can you talk to me a little bit about that dynamic?
Eric Kripke: Yeah, it's a great question. We were really interested in exploring the idea of authority figures getting the public really riled up with xenophobia and racism, but ultimately the most dangerous people are the white dudes standing next to you. We wanted to reflect that story. So, the supervillains are, in a way, a misdirect.
We wrote it at the time of the travel ban, if you remember; the caravan that were "going to come over the border and rape all the white women." We were in that world, and the way that authority figures were drumming up fear in these outsiders was disgusting, frankly. And so we wanted to reflect that story, which is Vought and the superheroes and Stormfront are really drumming up quite a lot of fear about these supervillains. When in reality, Homelander and Stormfront are the real threat.
I want to talk about Stormfront, because we have a new member of the Seven this season. What can you talk to me about the character and what Aya Cash brings to the role?
Eric Kripke: First, Aya brings such like a formidable intelligence and wit, and she's just so sharp and smart. And we really needed that. The goal was to create Homelander's worst nightmare, which is a woman who wasn't afraid of him and proceeds to steal his spotlight. That's the worst thing that that gaping black hole of insecurity would ever deal with. So that was the idea originally, or at the start, and why we gender flipped the character from the books - who is a man.
And then she was our way to get into issues of white nationalism. Anyone who reads the books knows who this character really is, and we ultimately reveal it. She has a very hateful ideology, but we were really interested in modernizing it and how it's sort of often expressed today. It's wrapped in a very savvy social media package, and a lot of these people come on as like disruptors. "We're gonna be free thinkers about our hateful ideology," and so they come off in a kind of an insidious way, because they're attractive to young people until you dig a little deeper and then you realize it's the same hate they've been peddling for 1000 years. And we wanted to reflect that in that character.
At the end of season one, we're left at this big giant cliffhanger, and we see this dynamic between Homelander and Ryan, which is really unsettling in the real world. Talk to me about juggling that dynamic of abuse and a forthcoming father coming back into the picture while he's trying to unlock this kind of super privilege in Ryan?
Eric Kripke: The spoiler is Homelander is a terrible father, so I just wanted to give that away. He's a mess, and he's such a snake's nest of insecurity and fear and neuroses. You know those people who have babies so they won't be alone? I think that's him. I think he wants to be a father so that there's someone he can raise as a little him who will worship him. I think he's hungry for the emotional connection he had with Stilwell and will get it any way he can. But he proceeds to give you know some truly terrible advice to that kid.
The Boys season 4 premieres on Amazon on September 4.