'The Boys' Actor Antony Starr on Leaning Into Homelander's Milk Fetish 'Every Opportunity We Get'

'The Boys' is currently in its fourth (and penultimate) season.

July 2, 2024

Man in dark suit and bow tie with glasses at a red-carpet event — (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)

Antony Starr has revealed how the minds behind the Prime Video hit The Boys came up with his character Homelander's milk fetish.

In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Starr reflected on Homelander never wasting time getting his hands on some milk and enjoying a few gulps. Homelander first showed his obsession with milk in Season 1, and it's been a running joke for die-hard fans ever since. According to Starr, the gag started in a scene where Homelander got jealous of a baby being breastfed.

"So my memory is it came up in the scripts—full credit to the writing team on this, because it was so weird," Starr said. "It started with X-ray visioning my Oedipal mummy figure while she was breastfeeding, and me pining like that and having a jealous relationship with the baby. And then at the start of Season 2, I found some of her…Homelander found some of her breast milk in a freezer and lasers it, starts drinking it, gets caught."

The 48-year-old New Zealand native continued, "And it was so funny and weird, and I think I sent [showrunner Eric Kripke] an email after that scene going, 'Dude, we gotta get as much milk in this show as possible. This is gonna be like a little motif or a signature thing. Like, we have to do it.' And he was like, 'One step ahead of you, brother. I'm putting it in everything.' And so now every opportunity we get, the milk thing comes out. We don't have to do anything with it, either. If I just look at someone and sip milk, there's a twist to it. It's become a really fun thing. The fans have really glommed on to it. And enjoyed it."

The Boys is currently in its fourth season, which kicked off in June. However, fans have a finite amount of time with the beloved group of degenerate superheroes as Kripke announced the fifth season will be the last.

"Season 4 premiere week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the final season!" Kripke wrote. "Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax."