While the MCU and DCEU are the unquestioned champs of the box office, the television landscape has given rise to a different, more experimental form of superhero content. Leading the pack is Amazon’s The Boys, which serves as a dark parody of the Avengers and Justice League. One of the leads of the show is Homelander, played by Antony Starr, easily the chief breakout character of the series. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Starr weighed in on whether he would be interested in playing a mainstream superhero next.
“Do you know what? I think I’ve got a new appreciation for how taxing it is to wear the superhero outfits, so it’d have to be the right role for the right people. I’ve followed the comic book movies and shows, of course, because they really hit their stride with pop culture over the last sort of decade or more. So, of course, I follow all those films, and watch them, I’m a fan, but it wasn’t something I’m begging and gagging to do. It was just something that if the opportunity comes up, great, but if it’s a fun, interesting role and character then, yeah, cool. I’d take it on. I treat it like anything else. It’s really about the people involved, the material, and the character. And if it all sits up and looks like it’ll be fun and interesting, and do something creatively fresh with, then great.”
Clearly, Antony Starr is not interested in playing a superhero again simply for the sake of putting on the cape and tights once more. Even with The Boys, the main strength of the show lies in the writing, and not in watching the superpowered characters deal with one major threat after another. When discussing the continuation of The Boys, Starr hopes the show will not outstay its welcome, and only keep going for as long as the storylines stay relevant.
“I take it season by season. The length of the run needs to be dictated by the strength of the story, the qualities of the stories that they can come up with. I think, inevitably, shows, if you’ve got your ear to the ground, you can sense when the train’s coming and you and need to get off the tracks. Hopefully we won’t outstay our welcome and we’ll go out when the time is right, when we’re in a good place. I think everyone’s astute enough, the powers that be are astute enough to make that call. That said, I think we’ve got a good few seasons in us yet. I think we’ve got a great cast of characters and really interesting premise, and I think, like you said, we can really go anywhere with this. I think it’s a pretty healthy show and I think there’s a good life for it coming up.”
Amazon Studios’ The Boys stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Chace Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander and Aya Cash as Stormfront. Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. ComicBook.com brought this news first.