The Boys Season 4's Scariest Homelander Moment Was Improvised

This article contains spoilers for "The Boys" season 4 episode 4, "Wisdom of the Ages."

Antony Starr's Homelander on the hit Prime Video series "The Boys" will rightfully be remembered as one of the most deplorable villains in entertainment history. The overpowered supe is such a demented, crooked, contemptible freak that we at /Film made a list documenting the worst things he's ever done ahead of season 4, and there's plenty more that will need to be added after the season wraps up. Showrunner Eric Kripke has never been subtle in calling out Homelander as an evil fascist (even if some viewers are too media illiterate to recognize him as the bad guy), but Starr has gotten so good at playing the character, sometimes the actor brings an added level of depravity that wasn't originally a part of the script.

The fourth episode of season 4, "Wisdom of the Ages," is one of Homelander's most blatantly horrific episodes yet, even if there's a twisted sense of empathy for what he's doing. The beauty of "The Boys" is that the series refuses to paint anything as fully black and white, even if Homelander is very clearly in the wrong. The episode sees him returning to Vought lab where he was raised and abused as a young supe in the name of "research." After years of hurting, he's finally enacting his revenge against those who harmed him in his younger years. It forces the audience to sympathize with the child who was tortured, but are terrified of the man the child became.

And Antony Starr made the scene even scarier with his own improvised moment.

Homelander arrives at the Vought laboratory with a gift of Fudgie the Whale, the signature ice cream cake sold at Carvel's. What at first seems like a friendly visit quickly turns into Homelander by way of Jigsaw in "Saw." He first challenges a scientist named Frank to a friendly game of waste basket basketball, a game he learned by watching Frank at his desk from inside an incinerator. As a child (then named John), Homelander was treated like a lab rat, and Frank put him inside a heat chamber to see just how invincible he was. "Even though my skin didn't char, it still really hurt," Homelander says, and then forces Frank into that same incinerator to be burned alive.

All of the scientists realize that they're all at risk of Homelander's wrath, so when he sets his sights on Marty, the audience watching knows there's no good coming his way. Marty gave John the nickname "Squirt" when he was a teenager after he caught the young supe masturbating. It's a pretty screwed-up comment for an adult in a position of power to make, and the shaming clearly stunted Homelander's development and relationship with sex as an adult. As revenge, Homeland forces Marty to masturbate in front of the group while he mocks him for his inability to climax. He eventually uses his laser eyes to torch Marty's genitals, but not before unleashing maniacal laughter. The situation is scary, to be sure, but that laugh is downright bone-chilling.

And according to Eric Kripke, it was all Antony Starr's idea.

During an interview with TVLine, Eric Kripke was asked about the horrifying moment, and where the inspiration for the laugh came from. "To be clear, that was not scripted," Kripe explained. "In the script, he blasts the guy and then walks over to him." Kripke didn't even know the laugh happened until he started looking at the dailies of production, and it scared the hell out of him. "When I saw it in the dailies, I just was like, 'Jesus Christ, that could be the scariest I've ever seen Homelander,' and I've seen hundreds of hours of Homelander film." The instinct was absolutely the right one, and Starr elevated the scene into one of Homelander's very best. Given his cruelty, "best" doesn't feel appropriate, but it's precisely what he achieved.

"That to me was just such a terrifying and brilliant performance, and I would like to announce my campaign entitled Give That Guy an Emmy Already," said Kripke. The laugh isn't terrifying just because it's unsettling to see someone laugh in the face of unhinged cruelty, but because it's the moment, as Kripke says, where Homelander "thinks it's a huge turning point because he thinks that he's finally killed the parts of him that are human and has fully embraced his godhood." Alas, Homelander will never be able to strip the aspects of himself that are human, just as Vought scientist Barbara points out after his killing spree. He lets her live, and she tells him it's because deep down, he will always want her approval.

"I think that's part of his hubris and part of the tragedy of Homelander, if you can use that word, which is if only he embraced his humanity, not only would he be happier, but the world would be a much better place," Kripke said. "But he can't, and it's just pushing him further and further into psychosis."

"The Boys" is available to stream on Prime Video.