At FanExpo Canada in Toronto on August 24th, fans of The Boys got to hear from actors Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, and Karl Urban as they talked about the series.
The three actors shared some stories about filming season 1, and even gave a few hints of what's to come in season two, which they are currently filming in Toronto.
The Series
If you haven't seen The Boys yet, you're missing out on a dark and exciting new show that is rapidly gaining popularity.
The Boys premiered on Amazon Prime on July 26, 2019, and since then, people have been raving about its unique take on the superhero genre.
The Boys is based on the comic book series of the same name, which is even darker and more gruesome than the show.
This dark superhero series is about a world where superheroes exist and work for a company called Vought International. The public adores them, and gobbles up anything the company puts out to monetize their fame.
The Boys are a group of vigilantes that come together to seek out the truth about the Seven, Vaught's main team of superheroes. The Boys suspect that the superheroes are hiding dark secrets, and don't deserve the adoration they receive.
Saying much about the show is a risk of spoiling the experience for first time viewers, so I won't go into too much detail, but it's definitely worth checking it out for yourself.
The show is very dark, gritty, and twisted. It puts a new spin on superhero shows, showing what could potentially go wrong in a world where people have incredible supernatural powers.
The Boys panel at FanExpo Canada was a highly entertaining Q&A session with Antony Starr, Karl Urban, and Jack Quaid from the Boys, moderated by Moises Chiullan.
The Actors
Antony Starr is from New Zealand, and was previously best known for his lead role as Lucas Hood in the crime thriller series Banshee.
He plays Homelander (John) in The Boys.
Homelander is the leader of The Seven and likely the most beloved of the group. As the season progresses, we learn many things about Homelander and his motivations.
Karl Urban is also from New Zealand and is known for several roles including Éomer in the second and third Lord of the Rings films, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond, Judge Dredd in Dredd, and Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok (to name a few).
He plays Billy Butcher in The Boys.
Billy is the leader of the Boys, bringing the group together to bring down The Seven, who he has a personal vendetta with.
Jack Quaid is an American actor. He is the son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. He played the role of Marvel in the Hunger Games films.
He plays Hughie Campbell in The Boys.
Hughie is basically a regular guy living a normal life until something that happens in the first episode that turns his life upside down. This leads to him becoming a (somewhat reluctant) member of the Boys.
These three stars of The Boys sat down with moderator Moises Chiullan and answered questions from their fans.
Whose job is the best
Starr, Quaid, and Urban laughed and joked and swore their way through the Q&A, and made it seem as though working on the set of The Boys would be both hilarious and traumatizing.
The cast talked about how great Starr's role is, and how the job is quite a bit more difficult for some of the other cast members.
Starr laughs and jokes about his amazing role and how much he loves playing Homelander.
He points out that Quaid is always covered in blood and guts and looking traumatized, and Dominique McElligott (who plays Queen Maeve) will often have to carry the emotional weight in some scenes (he mentioned a certain scene involving a plane as one example).
But Starr as Homelander just gets to enjoy each day and have a great time filming. He seems to love his role and his job.
Homelander
When asked about his ability to look psychotic and murderous on screen, Starr said that he doesn't know how to answer that question, because it reflects poorly on his character.
He said he is asked about that look often. He laughed and said, "I have no fucking clue. So, I think it's just me. Which is worrying."
Talking about working with babies and showing his character's strange perspective of babies in the series, Starr talked about one scene in particular as an example.
When he was working with several babies in a scene with Urban, he spoke of the difficulties of trying to film at 3 am while Urban was laughing at him and while Starr seemed to make every baby scream in terror.
Starr says that he loves babies, but at that moment, the baby is a problem, and so it's not hard to look at the baby in a way that is convincingly ominous on camera. He said, at that moment, "I wanted to laser the baby."
Homelander and Judge Dredd
On a similar note, when the cast was asked who would win in a fight between Judge Dredd and Homelander, Starr's response was simply "Laser eyes, bitch."
Urban then said, "Judge Dredd is SMART. He would use his brains to beat Homelander. Granted, the laser eyes are a bit of a fucking problem."
As for fans of Judge Dredd, Karl Urban said that the tv series is happening, but that his involvement with The Boys would impact his ability to be involved in that project.
Judge Dredd: Mega City One is currently in development, but there is no release date as of yet.
Traumatic Filming
When discussing the visual effects on The Boys, Quaid said, "I think I can talk about this because it's in the trailer. When I'm holding Robin's hands, they felt REALLY real. Somehow they were warm. And I don't know how. Oooh no. I can't. It's still burned in my psyche. But our visual effects team has been really amazing."
From there, the conversation turned to the need to have a trauma counseling budget built into the actor's contracts.
In response to the idea of trauma counseling, Urban had this to say: "After what we did yesterday, he totally needs it." He then goes on to add, "We're shooting season 2, and it's even more fucking diabolical. We shot this shit yesterday that will a) blow your minds, and b) traumatize the hell out of you"
Quaid chips in with "I'm still shaking. I'm really sore. I can't say why."
Urban follows with "But I had a lot to do with it."
Later in the discussion, Urban mentioned having a helicopter on set for filming the previous day, and talking about how much in camera work is done as opposed to CGI effects.
When asked by the moderator, he told fans that the particularly diabolical episode they were filming was episode 3, so fans can look forward to seeing some extra twisted scenes in that episode.
The future of female supes
Later in the discussion, The Boys actors are asked about if any female supes are as corrupted as the male supes in the series, and Urban says, "Oh, wait until you see season two!"
Then they discuss a new character, Stormfront, who will be in the second season. Stormfront was male in the comics, but will be female in the tv series.
Starr then confirmed that Aya Cash (from You're the Worst) will be playing the role of Stormfront.
The cast then talked about Stormfront being a badass with a serious dark streak who is even more terrifying that the characters we've seen so far in the series.
One last tease
When asked about what they would like to add into the series from the comics, Urban said he would love to have Terror around, explaining that Terror is Butcher's bulldog from the comics who has quite a distinctive personality.
Read More: The Boys Comic Synopsis
He then added very suggestively "But uh, you know, hang around for season two"¦."
It seems that fans of The Boys will have plenty to look forward to in season 2.
So if the first season didn't traumatize you too much, be sure to check out season 2.
