‘The Boys’ Creator Eric Kripke Makes a Strong Emmy Push for Antony Starr

Few television performances of the past decade have generated the kind of sustained, breathless praise that Antony Starr has received for playing Homelander in ‘The Boys.’ Season after season, critics and viewers have reached for superlatives to describe what the New Zealand actor does in the role, calling it terrifying, layered, and among the most compelling villain performances in the history of the medium.

And yet, through five complete seasons and the conclusion of the entire series, the Television Academy has never once acknowledged it with a nomination.

‘The Boys’ wrapped its final season on Amazon Prime Video earlier this year, with the fifth and final season airing from April 8 through May 20. As the show came to an end, it did so with an outpouring of fan and critic appreciation for what Starr had built over seven years in the role. The conversation around his long-overdue recognition at the Emmys has never been louder.

Now, showrunner Eric Kripke has taken that conversation to social media with unmistakable directness. In a post circulating widely online, Kripke wrote of Starr, “Real talk Antony Starr delivered me one of the best villains in TV history. He’s too humble to say this but I will. Television voters give this man an Emmy already.” The message was unambiguous, and it landed at exactly the right moment.

Kripke has been making this case for years. Speaking to Variety during the show’s run, he explained precisely what sets Starr apart. Kripke noted that in Homelander’s example, the actor’s ability to give 16 facial expressions when another person gives one is just so astounding, adding, “Give that guy an Emmy already. I don’t understand why it hasn’t happened yet.”

Despite being one of the most popular superhero TV series, ‘The Boys’ and its lead actor have yet to receive their due recognition from Emmy voters. Starr has never been nominated for an Emmy award across all five seasons of the show. That absence becomes increasingly hard to explain with each passing year, particularly given how consistently the performance has been cited in critical discourse.

The Boys has received eight Primetime Emmy nominations in its run, but six of those were for the Creative Arts Emmys, and notably, Antony Starr received no acting nominations. The show’s stunt work and technical craft have been recognized, but the performance at the center of it all has been passed over entirely.

It is not as though the industry has been completely blind to what Starr is doing. The Critics’ Choice Super Awards recognized Starr twice as Best Villain in a Series, and he holds the record as the most nominated actor in the Best Actor in a Superhero Series category with three nominations. He has also received Saturn Award nominations and other genre-circuit recognition. But genre awards and Emmy recognition exist in largely separate conversations, and Starr’s absence from the latter remains the defining omission of his career so far.

Fans have shared Kripke’s frustration from the very beginning. Karl Urban, Starr’s co-star in ‘The Boys,’ even launched his own campaign for Emmy voters during the show’s earlier seasons, calling the performance “absolutely exemplary” and the choices Starr makes “brilliantly compelling, unpredictable and emotionally truthful.” The sentiment has been consistent across cast, crew, and audiences alike, making the Television Academy’s silence all the more conspicuous.

With ‘The Boys’ now concluded, audience reactions to the series finale were filled with nonstop praise for Starr, with viewers calling his performance a “role of a lifetime” and describing him as having played “one of the best villains ever to perfection.” The Emmy eligibility window for the final season opens up a last genuine opportunity for voters to correct the record on a performance that has defined what television villainy can look like in the streaming era.

Homelander is a character who weaponizes charm, projects vulnerability while committing atrocities, and makes audiences question their own reactions to his behavior. That takes an extraordinary actor, and Antony Starr has delivered that across every episode. Whether Emmy voters are finally paying attention is a question that will be answered when nominations are announced.

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