The Boys Showrunner Confirms Homelander Is a “Trump Analogue”

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has clarified what more discerning viewers of Season 3 of the superhero parody series already figured out: the evil Superman character Homelander is a stand-in for former president Donald Trump.

“He’s always been a Trump analogue for me,” Kripke said in a recent Rolling Stone profile. “I’ll admit to being a little more bald this season than I have in past seasons. But the world is getting more coarse and less elegant. The urgency of our team’s writing reflects that. We’re angrier and more scared as the years go on, so that is just being reflected in our writing. But part of it is where Homelander’s story naturally goes. He has this really combustible mix of complete weakness and insecurity, and just horrible power and ambition, and it’s just such a deadly combo.”

Kripke continued, “Of course he would feel victimized that people are angry that he dated a Nazi. All he ever wants is to be the most powerful person he can be, even though he’s completely inadequate in his abilities to handle it. So it’s white-male victimization and unchecked ambition. And those issues just happened to reflect the guy who, it’s just still surreal to say it, was fucking president of the United States. And it’s a bigger issue than just Trump. The more awful public figures act, the more fans they seem to be getting. That’s a phenomenon that we wanted to explore, that Homelander is realizing that he can actually show them who he really is and they’ll love him for it.”

Without giving too much away, Homelander has continued his ascension in a certain segment of the population this season. Part of this has included appearing on a Fox News-like station and delivering public speeches that have naturally struck a chord with rural white men.

After the interview was published, conservative members of The Boys subreddit didn’t react well to the revelation. Although it was pretty apparent Homelander was evil after committing cold-blooded murder in the first episode, it looks like fans who consider him a bad guy who is merely misunderstood were looking for a redemption arc that’s simply not happening.

Read the full interview at Rolling Stone and take a look at the subreddit’s response below.

The Boys subreddit is chaos right now. Threads getting locked, users rage-deleting whole accounts. It’s amazing. Right-wing users are whining about “no politics,” but it’s impossible to talk about the show without them now. Fans who thought Homelander was cool are in a meltdown. pic.twitter.com/w4YyWVuWIW

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— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) June 18, 2022

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