Five years after his debut, The boys Continues to be Prime Video’s superhero smash hit, with its fourth season will continue to soar to the top of streaming number viewership records. Viewer anticipation for the show’s colorfully chaotic cast is at an all-time high, as to me, Anthony Starr has become synonymous with The Guys How Homelander is to milk. But because of BansheeIt didn’t surprise me to learn that fan reactions to Starr’s season 4 performance remain strong.
However, Starr is no stranger to commanding the screen through morally complex characters, and I got a glimpse of this six years before the release of The boysin Banshee. In this show, Starr was able to showcase his now-signature ability to portray characters that are likable and criminal – paving the way for all the ingredients behind his strong characterization of Homelander.
The boys’ Anthony Starr played the lead role in Banshee
Themes of identity come into focus
in Banshees three-year run from 2013 to 2016, before the actor joining The boys Starr took on the lead role of an ex-con who assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff named Lucas Hood to escape his pursuers. In doing so, he works to strike a balance between Hood and his own criminal activities. It is this struggle for identity where I see the seeds of Homelander being firmly planted six years after Hood’s introduction – in Playing both dynamics of the law against one another in cop and criminal respectively.
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I got a personal perspective of how invested Starr’s unnamed ex-con is in working as an officer of the law and how his understanding of justice plays out. This was clear in Banshees last season when Hood worked to take down the serial killer responsible for a lot of murders, including his friend Rebecca. As Starr works to catch the killer, his angle is rooted in brutal revenge, which is where Hood’s image blurs the ethical lines Intended to separate cops and criminals.
Starr’s Lucus Hood is the perfect anti-hero
Shades of gray replace good and evil
Starr’s introduction as an unnamed ex-con in Banshee Made it hard for me to really define the moral compass of Hood. While he had a reputation for being a thief, he was a loving father to his daughter Deva. His criminal past left him with few inhibitions when it came to breaking the law, but it helped Hood as sheriff, as He was not held back by a heroic code as he worked to achieve justice. It is this flawed sense of justice that demonstrates that Hood is able to go where others on his team would not – epitomizing thinking like a criminal to catch one.
Anthony Starr showed that he knows how to play with my traditional notions of good and evil.
in BansheeAnthony Starr, by playing a criminal masquerade as a sheriff who steadily redeems his criminal past by leaning into it, Anthony Starr showed that he knows how to play with my traditional concept of good and evil. Starr works to endear himself to audiences, showing his ability to be Relatable and likable enough for me to stay engaged with him because he disregards heroic ethics. As Homelander in The boysStarr’s mastery of this is on full display as he repels me from his character, all while keeping me clamoring for more of his unique brand of mayhem.