There's something magical about missing the point of a show so completely that even the show's creator has to do a double take. After an image went viral of a Trump supporter dressed up as the unambiguous villain Homelander from Amazon Prime's The Boys at the "Million MAGA March" (another instance of apparently not understanding what words mean), showrunner Eric Kripke had some words for the confused cosplayer.
Homelander, a self-absorbed, xenophobic, misogynistic white nationalist who fell in love with a literal Nazi, has been one of the show's most prominent villains since episode 1, leading Kripke to openly wonder just how anyone could come to the conclusion that this is a character worth rooting for. Sure, he's unhinged, literally evil, and completely incapable of genuinely connecting with any human on even the most base level, but hey, he can fly and go "pew pew" with his eye lasers. Apparently that's enough for some people.
"Um... are they actually watching the show?" Kripke mused on Twitter while quote tweeting the image from the event. The picture depicts a Trump supporter dressed as Homelander with a Trump mask pretending to restrain another person in a stereotypical "striped" prison outfit and a mask of President-Elect Joe Biden. The irony of someone impeached for various illegal activities trying to lock up a political opponent apparently flew over their heads like Homelander on his way to murder some civilians.
Even actor Antony Starr, who plays Homelander and is reportedly an all around swell guy, called out the incident as "the art of ignorant dumbf***erry" in a retweet of Kripke's post. Starr has shown that he understands the character in previous interviews, saying that he "always viewed him, right off the bat, as the weakest character on the show, emotionally and maybe arguably spiritually." So it makes sense that he would join Kripke in his baffled reaction.
Fans misinterpreting their favorite characters is nothing new. From seeing the cynical and destructive Rick as a role model in Rick and Morty to thinking The Joker has the right idea in just wanting to "watch the world burn" in The Dark Knight, it's almost required that provably bad people will always attract followers, even in fiction. But considering the fact that Homelander does almost nothing but commit various atrocities throughout the entirety of The Boys thus far, it almost suggests that his unironic fans know full well that he's a garbage person and like him for the exact same reasons that the people he kills hate him.
Nevertheless, watching them get called out by the show's creator and the character's actual actor is a bit cathartic. Aside from where the rest of the show goes, seeing where they take Homelander next season will be exciting, though probably for different reasons than the people in that picture think.
Source: IndieWire