Karl Urban on ‘The Boys,’ Season 2 Finale: ‘The Most Intense…Experience’
Season 2 of The Boys is now available for streaming, in its entirety, on Amazon. The second season dives even further into the show’s morally gray characters, revealing the dark underbellies inherent to the various “supes” who are supposed to defend and protect. Yet, most of the time, they seem to attack and instigate.
Karl Urban’s Butcher experiences several life-changing events in the second season. And, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor talked about the season finale. Urban noted what it was like to play Butcher in those final moments, as he and other cast members commented on the character’s future.
[spoiler warning for season 2 of ‘The Boys’]
Karl Urban talks about Butcher’s final moments in season 2 of ‘The Boys’
Karl Urban’s Butcher has been fighting the supes in the name of his greatest love — Rebecca. When he discovers she is alive, he sets out on a mission to save her, and he is willing (and quite able) to destroy anything that dares to cross his path.
Butcher confronts each obstacle head-on and is sometimes too stubborn and fearless for his own good. Yet, the end of the second season leaves Rebecca dead – at the hands of her superhero son, who was only trying to protect her. So, with Rebecca gone, what does Butcher have to live for? What does he have to fight for? Where is he mentally and emotionally? In discussing the season finale, Urban explained:
I think Butcher is in a devastated place. He has definitively lost the love of his life. It was just some of the most intense, heavy, sort of experience that I’ve had on any set…
Karl Urban / Entertainment Weekly
Karl Urban explains that filming the last moments was “intense. He had to inhabit a sense of purposelessness and unexplainable loss to convey a man who, already, didn’t have much to live for.
What’s next for Butcher in season 3 of ‘The Boys?’
Will Butcher fulfill Rebecca’s dying wish – will he make sure to protect her son? Will he ensure that Ryan is safe, despite the fact that he represents a group of people Butcher vehemently despises? And, if so, how will that lead to further entanglement with Homelander?
Jack Quaid (Hughie) argued that the events of the season 2 finale will “change everything,” since Butcher’s “entire motivation” is now gone. Butcher virtually existed and fought for Rebecca. Meaning, will he continue to fight, or will he spiral down an isolated path?
Laz Alonso believes Butcher is going to go “very dark,” as he enters an out-of-control “rampage.” What’s next for Butcher remains unknown; however, one fact is certain: the writers will have to pen a character growth trajectory from this point of extreme loss and a lack of drive.
