‘The Boys’ Star Antony Starr Nearly Passed on the Role That Made Him TV’s Most Terrifying Villain

It is hard to imagine The Boys without Antony Starr as Homelander, but the actor almost never auditioned for the role that changed his career. Starr recently revealed that he nearly skipped the chance because he did not think he fit the image of a superhero.

Before becoming one of television’s most terrifying characters, Starr had doubts about whether he belonged in the world of comic book adaptations. He compared himself to actors like Henry Cavill, who became known for playing Superman, and felt he did not have the typical superhero look.

Starr explained that he avoided sending in an audition tape for The Boys for some time. “I kept avoiding it until I finally put a tape down, almost out of spite.”

The actor eventually recorded his audition casually while taking a break. “I went to my trailer, at lunchtime, and got my iPad out and just literally spat an audition out.”

However, Starr still did not believe he had a real chance of getting the role. After seeing that the project was about superheroes, he immediately doubted himself.

“They’re not going to pick me anyway, I’m not made for that. Henry Cavill’s 12 feet tall, built like a 12-foot brick s**t house, and he’s wonderful, handsome and charming. I’m not going to get that.”

That doubt quickly disappeared when Starr landed the role of Homelander, a character who would become one of the most memorable villains in modern television.

Since The Boys premiered in 2019, Starr’s performance has been praised for bringing a unique mix of fear, insecurity, arrogance, and unpredictability to Homelander. Instead of playing him as a simple evil superhero, Starr created a character who could be terrifying in one moment and strangely vulnerable in another.

Homelander became the face of The Boys and a major reason why the series gained such a large following. The character’s fake smile, disturbing confidence, and unpredictable behavior turned him into one of the most talked-about TV villains of recent years.

The series recently ended after five seasons, with Homelander receiving an ending that was far from the heroic exit a traditional superhero would expect. According to showrunner Eric Kripke in an interview with Rolling Stone, he spoke with Starr before the actor even read the Season 5 script because he knew Starr cared deeply about the character.

Kripke explained that Homelander’s final moments were never meant to be a glorious defeat. Instead, the character was supposed to experience a humiliating downfall after years of causing pain and destruction.

“I told Starr that Homelander’s death wouldn’t be epic or victorious,” Kripke said. The villain would instead “go out the most pathetic way possible.”

According to Kripke, Starr understood why the character needed that ending. After years of violence and cruelty, Homelander’s final moments showed the person behind the powerful image he had created.

The actor even helped add more desperation to the scene. Kripke revealed that one of Homelander’s most uncomfortable lines in the finale came from Starr himself, as the actor wanted to show just how broken the character had become.

While fans had mixed reactions to Homelander’s ending, there is no denying Starr’s impact on the series. He transformed a comic book villain into a complex character that audiences loved to hate.

Antony Starr may have once believed he was not the right person to play a superhero, but his performance as Homelander proved the opposite. Instead of becoming another typical superpowered character, he created a villain who will likely remain one of the defining performances of the superhero genre for years to come.

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