The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has responded to the striking similarity between a scene from the superhero show and Donald Trump’s recently erected golden statue of himself.
Last week’s episode of Amazon Prime Video’s superhero and political satire, titled “Though the Heavens Fall,” saw Homelander (Antony Starr), the sadistic and psychotic leader of the superhero team “The Seven,” place a golden statue of himself inside a church. Declaring himself the new messiah after being visited in a vision by “angel” Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) in an earlier episode, Homelander demands to be worshipped.
Then, just hours after the episode’s premiere, the president unveiled a 15-foot gold statue of himself with a raised fist, nicknamed “Don Colossus,” at Trump National Doral Miami, one of his Florida golf clubs.
Sharing a split image on Instagram of Trump’s controversial statue and the golden statue of Homelander, Kripke wrote: “Seriously, what the f***?”
Not only do the statues share an eerie resemblance, but just last month, Trump similarly found himself in hot water for likening himself to God in an AI-generated image posted on Truth Social.
The image depicted Trump as Jesus in flowing robes, healing a sick man with beams of light emanating from his hands, while he’s surrounded by patriotic symbols, including an American flag, the Statue of Liberty and eagles.
It sparked outrage among Christians and across the political spectrum. Former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed the post and said she was “praying against it” while Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders described it as “deranged” and “egomaniacal behavior.” The View hosts condemned it as “blasphemous.”
This is not the first time The Boys featured chilling parallels to political events. In the fourth season, the series was forced to add a disclaimer before its episode, originally titled “Assassination Run,” following the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump.
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A plot in the season four finale showed Jack Quaid’s Hughie attempting to block an assassination attempt on President-Elect Robert Singer (Jim Beaver), orchestrated by Homelander.
At the start of the episode, a disclaimer now reads: “Viewer discretion advised. This episode contains scenes of fictional political violence. Any similarities to recent events are completely coincidental and unintentional. Prime Video, Amazon, MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of The Boys oppose, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind.”
Starr previously rejected the “strange” comparisons viewers made between Homelander and Trump.
“Of course, people could make the comparison, and they did. So it was quite strange getting dragged into a conversation I didn’t necessarily sign on to be a part of,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly in 2024. “I didn’t want the character to be a mustache-twirling villain. It had to be a real person built from the ground up. The other thing is, I really don’t like using the word ‘psychopath.’ I think it’s such a reductive term.”
The Boys is currently airing its fifth and final season. The critically acclaimed series debuted in 2019 and centers on a group of superheroes who go rogue and start abusing their powers. Along with Starr and Quaid, it also features Karl Urban, Erin Moriarty and Jensen Ackles.
New episodes of The Boys are released Wednesdays on Amazon Prime Video.
