The 15 Scariest Homelander Moments in ‘The Boys’ Universe, Ranked!

Spoilers for The Boys follow.

The one thing that will secure The Boys‘ laurels in the TV hall of fame is its main villain, Homelander (Antony Starr). The strongest superhero in the world, Homelander is a ticking time bomb of emotional issues.

Manchild though he is, he can also back up all his threats and then some. Starr’s performance has made him the scariest villain currently on TV.

The show’s Homelander is much scarier than the original character in The Boys comics and more complex too. The show focuses more on his neuroses and damage from being raised in a lab, adding depth the comic didn’t.

No other villain is equally pathetic and unnerving like Homelander is, and these 15 moments prove it.

15. Homelander says “I’m the real hero” (The Boys Season 3 Episode 2)

Early in The Boys Season 3, Homelander said through a grimacing faux-smile that he was “very excited for everyone to meet the real me.” He fulfills that promise on The Boys Season 3 Episode 2, “The Only Man in the Sky.”

Pushed to breaking by an episode’s worth of indignities, Homelander takes off his metaphorical mask on his live TV birthday broadcast. It’s one of his Trumpiest moments, as he declares himself better than everyone else but can’t help but admit his self-pity too.

This can’t rank any higher because it’s nothing compared to Homelander’s more violent moments, but what the scene suggests (Homelander is off the leash) is plenty scary.

14. Homelander yells at A-Train, “What did you say to me?!” (The Boys Season 3 Episode 1)

Homelander is the strongest of all the Supes and has no limits about pushing around, maiming, or murdering weaker ones. Not even his cronies in the Seven are free from his wrath (RIP Black Noir).

On The Boys Season 3 Episode 1, “Payback,” he castigates A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) for drinking a milkshake. As a speedster, A-Train needs to burn a lot of calories, but Homelander still finds the sight of a supposed prime athlete overeating to be disgusting.

A-Train mouths a barely audible “Fuck You” once Homelander’s back is turned. Cue Homelander turning back around, grabbing A-Train, and nearly lasering his head off, even something that small can make Homelander (and his victims) see red.

13. “I’m the Homelander, and I can do whatever the f**k I want!” (The Boys Season 1 Episode 2)

Antony Starr is a master of facial acting; he has to be to play a mood-swinger like Homelander. Starr can strike an unforgettable expression for whenever Homelander is angry or mopy; none of his faux-happy grins have the exact same shape.

The first sign that Starr could play Homelander as so subtly threatening was on The Boys Season 1 Episode 2, “Cherry.” Homelander is trying to find Translucent (Alex Hassell), the light-bending Supe in the Seven who’s been abducted by the Boys. So, he goes to Vought’s crime analytics department.

When one analyst is reluctant to help him, Homelander delivers the above threat, flashes a bugged-eye evil smile, then goes back to laughing.

Homelander has a toothy grin to rival a great white shark, but what makes him even scarier is that his eyes are not lifeless like a doll’s.

12. Homelander shows up at Godolkin U. (Gen V Season 1 Episode 8)

Gen V has a whole new main cast, but it includes plentiful cameos from The Boys too.

Gen V Season 1 Episode 8, “Guardians of Godolkin,” features several of the university’s students starting a riot. Saying that the super-strong will inherit the Earth, they kill any normal humans on campus.

Our heroes, led by Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), quell the riot, and once they do, Homelander shows up. He throws the true “Guardians of Godolkin” under the bus because, as we would learn on The Boys Season 4, he’s got his own plans for Supe supremacy.

The way the scene plays out from Marie’s perspective, with Homelander mostly quiet and her being defeated before she can even react, makes him feel like a true horror movie monster.

11. Homelander rejects Blindspot from the Seven (The Boys Season 2 Episode 1)

The Boys creator Eric Kripke has made it a long-running joke that the Seven will never actually have Seven members.

On The Boys Season 2 Episode 1, “The Big Ride,” Ashley (Colby Minifie) is holding auditions for a new member.

She’s chosen Blindspot (Chris Mark), a Daredevil send-up who can’t see but has enhanced hearing. Until a chummy Homelander smashes his fists on Blindspot’s head. The now-deafened Blindspot instantly collapses, writhing as blood pours out of his ears.

The scene feels right out of The Boys comic; Ennis gets off on showing how Marvel/DC characters’ powers are actually stupid. That’s exactly what Homelander terrifyingly does here.

10. Homlander shoots down the plane (The Boys Season 1 Episode 1)

The Boys Season 1 Episode 1, “The Name of the Game,” initially suggests Homelander may not be such a bad guy. Butcher (Karl Urban) tells Hughie (Jack Quaid) that Homelander is “a saint” and “the one exception,” unlike the other hedonistic Supes.

Whenever Homelander himself is onscreen, he’s all warm smiles to everyone, until the very last scene, anyway.

Having learned the Mayor of Baltimore is aware of Compound V and Supes’ true origin, Homelander trails after his private jet. Once they’re flying high enough for no one to see, Homelander slices the jet in half with his laser vision.

Iggy Pop’s The Passenger plays out over the credits because you did not want to be a passenger on that flight.

9. Homlander imagines lasering the crowd (The Boys Season 2 Episode 5)

While we know better now, Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) was initially presented as a good guy and an anti-Vought political crusader.

On The Boys Season 2 Episode 5, “We Gotta Go Now,” she holds a rally outside the Vought building. Homelander, naturally not a fan of Supe accountability, crashes the stage. After one too many jeers from the crowd, he unleashes his heat vision, cutting down dozens of people in a bloody swath without taking a step.

An overhead shot shows the full extent of the carnage — then it cuts back to Homelander’s face. He only thought about what would happen if he did what he wanted to do. Instead, he gives his “you’re the real heroes” spiel, and flies off.

The gore isn’t the only disturbing part, but also the implications: Just how often does Homelander imagine doing this?

8. Homelander shows Starlight Supersonic’s corpse (The Boys Season 3 Episode 4)

During The Boys Seasons 2 and 3, Starlight is in a compromised position: allied with the Boys but still part of the Seven. She thus has a blond, flag-draped sword hanging over her head every second.

Homelander knows, though, that sometimes the most effective way to hurt someone’s heart is to attack indirectly. On The Boys Season 3 Episode 4, “Glorious Five-Year Plan,” Homelander forces Starlight to fly off with him for a “surprise.” Said surprise is the broken corpse of Annie’s ex, Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva).

Starlight and Supersonic had been plotting against Homelander, so he killed him as an example. Homelander then extracts an oath of fealty from Annie, threatening not her own life but Hughie’s.

7. Homelander throws Ryan off the roof (The Boys Season 2 Episode 3)

Homelander genuinely loves his son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). What makes this still not a redeeming quality is that the love still comes from a rotten place.

As a narcissist, Homelander sees himself above everyone else. Ryan is the only other person he recognizes as, well, a person because Ryan is his blood. Homelander wants to be a father to Ryan because he never had a dad to love and guide him, but Homelander’s idea of parenthood is making his son into a “wrathful god” like himself.

On The Boys Season 2 Episode 3, “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men,” Homelander wants Ryan to try and fly. He decides his son needs a push, literally, and throws him from the roof. Ryan’s powers do not kick in, and he falls face-first.

Even someone Homelander loves isn’t free from his callous side.

6. Homelander kills the protester (The Boys Season 3 Episode 8)

It’s like the aforementioned “We Gotta Go Now,” but this time, it’s no dream.

The last scene of The Boys Season 3 Episode 8, “The Instant White-Hot Wild,” features Homelander introducing Ryan to his crowd of adoring fans. Then a protester throws a bottle at Homelander and accidentally hits Ryan.

This time, Homelander can’t contain his anger, so he laser-visions the guy’s head half off. Initially, the crowd is shocked, but then they start cheering, the camera closing in on Homelander’s laugh, disbelieving and over the moon he got away with this.

Homelander doesn’t need to try for people to fear him, but he wants to be loved too. In a moment designed to echo the former President’s declaration he could “shoot someone on fifth avenue” without losing support, Homelander learns the “real him” can be loved just as much as the masked one.

5. Homelander takes a bloodbath (The Boys Season 2 Episode 8)

On The Boys Season 2 Episode 8, “What I Know,” Butcher makes a deal with Vought to get his wife/Ryan’s mother Becca (Shantel VanSanten) if he helps them recapture her son.

Butcher instead leaves the Vought SWAT team hanging, meaning they’re left holding the bag when Homelander shows up, asking where his son is. Homelander calmly closes the cabin door, does his typical intense breathing plus cold stare, and kills them all when they can’t answer where Ryan is.

We only see one death, bisection by laser vision specifically, but Homelander then exits the cabin drenched in blood. Once again, the aftermath of Homelander’s actions are all the show needs to be scary.

4. Homelander makes the girl jump (The Boys Season 3 Episode 2)

His All-American garb evokes Steve Rogers, but Homelander is mostly a parody of Superman. This scene on The Boys Season 3 Episode 2, “The Only Man In The Sky,” is a vicious parody of one of Superman’s most famous scenes.

In writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman comic mini-series, a terminally ill Superman still takes the time to save a goth girl from jumping off a building. He reassures her with a smile and hug, “[She’s] much stronger than [she] thinks [she is].”

Homelander finds himself in the same situation in this episode, but he’s annoyed at having to waste his time saving a normal person, Chelsea (Nia Roam). So, he tells her to jump.

That’s when Chelsea starts having second thoughts, but Homelander doesn’t care and promises God won’t help her: “The only man in the sky is me,” the blasphemous root of the episode’s title.

3. Homelander kills Madelyn Stillwell (The Boys Season 1 Episode 8)

During The Boys Season 1, the only person Homelander shows any deference to is his handler, Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue). She’s both his surrogate mother and his lover, so Homelander is especially hungry for her affection.

Stillwell, though she knows how to placate Homelander, only sees him as a stepping stone for her climb up the Vought corporate ladder.

Their Oedipal relationship climaxes in The Boys Season 1 Episode 1, “You Found Me.” Butcher holds Stillwell hostage to get to Homelander. Instead, he walks over to Stillwell, makes her admit she’s afraid of him, and then lasers her head until it’s burnt through.

The sight of Madelyn’s hollowed head and charred eyes is some of the show’s most unforgettable gore.

2. Homelander goes back home (The Boys Season 4 Episode 4)

By the fourth season of any television series, the show should know the acting strengths of its main cast. That way, the characters can be written with those strengths in mind.

The Boys definitely knows how terrifying Antony Starr can be. The B-plot of The Boys Season 4 Episode 4, “Wisdom of the Ages,” feels like it was crafted specifically to let him go full creep for an extended sequence.

Homelander goes back to the lab where he was raised and spends his day torturing the scientists there one by one.

All the while, everyone is forced to play nice to Homelander and keep up the charade of a friendly visit. Of course, it’s a visit none of them are walking away from except “John” himself.

1. Homelander lets the plane crash (The Boys Season 1 Episode 4)

The Boys Season 1 Episode 4, “The Female of the Species,” is named for Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). What everyone remembers about the episode, though, is a Homelander scene.

Specifically, he botches stopping a plane hijacking, so he decides to let the plane crash and all the passengers die. The five-minute sequence of him and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligot) deciding to leave is agonizing to watch.

The scene, again, goes back to Superman; one of the most famous scenes in the 1978 Superman movie is the hero saving a plane. Likewise, Homelander’s defining act as a villain is his refusal to do so.

Like the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones, this scene was the moment The Boys (and Homelander) proved how far it could go, so audiences sat up and paid attention.

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The Boys streams on Prime Video.

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