‘The Boys’: Is Homelander’s Son the Only Supe That Can Kill Him?
Homelander (Antony Starr) isn’t the only villain in The Boys, but he is the most formidable. With his superhuman strength and invulnerability, he can’t be physically harmed by humans or other Supes of The Seven. But if Homelander’s son inherits all his powers, could he be the only one with the ability to kill him?
The Boys and Billy Butcher can’t kill Homelander with any weapon
No matter what they do, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his vigilante crew don’t stand a chance against Homelander. With his superhuman strength, stamina, speed, hearing, heat vision, x-ray vision, and ability to fly, he’s much stronger and more resilient than any other Supe. And to top it all off, he has no problem killing anyone who gets in his way.
In Season 1, Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) — who Homelander loved, trusted and then killed — admitted she was scared of him. She knew that he was a narcissist and a sociopath, but she also knew that he couldn’t be defeated.
“There isn’t a weapon on Earth that they haven’t thrown at him,” she says in an episode. “They’ve all failed.”
‘The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke reveals Homelander’s weaknesses
In a recent chat with Collider, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke talked about Homelander and what his weaknesses might be. Kripke revealed that the superhero is immune to any kind of physical damage, but emotionally, he’s the weakest of The Seven.
“We’ve never really gotten into the how do you stop him physically,” he explained. “But there are a lot of ways to stop him psychologically.”
Kripke noted that Homelander’s physical resilience prevents him from getting sick, or even drunk. But the Supe has major insecurities, and currently, that’s the only weak point he has.
“He’s physically perfect,” the showrunner added. “But he finds his human vulnerability so hateful and he hates that part of him. He tries to subsume it, and yet it is part of who he is. So he hates a part of him that he can’t ultimately control. That kind of leads to a snake’s nest of psychosis so that at the moment, that is his current weakness.”
Can Homelander’s son kill him?
In the first three episodes of Season 2 of The Boys, fans learned that Homelander is obsessed with his son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) — who he fathered with Butcher’s wife, Becca (Shantel VasSantan). The superhero has been spending most of his time away from The Seven with Ryan, trying to get him to use his superhero powers.
As seen in Episode 3, Ryan has inherited Homelander’s physical invulnerability and his heat vision. But because he was raised by a loving mother, he doesn’t share his dad’s cruelty.
When Homelander roughly grabs Becca’s arm, Ryan comes to his mother’s defense by throwing him to the ground. “I’m not like you,” he tells his dad. “I’m nothing like you. I f***ing hate you. Leave us alone.”
As of now, it looks like Ryan has inherited Homelander’s superpowers, but retains Becca’s compassion. Some fans think he may be the only one who can actually kill his father.
“I have a theory that he’s gonna end up being the one that takes Homelander out,” one Reddit fan wrote. “Series ends with the first super powered being ‘actually’ trying to do good. Would be a cool ending imo.”
This is just a theory, but it does make a lot of sense. Ryan may have superhuman powers, but he could easily become an emotional weakness for Homelander. Fans will just have to watch through the rest of the season to see how things pan out between the father and son.
New episodes of The Boys air Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
