One surprising actor had auditioned to play Homelander in The Boys long before Antony Starr donned the overpowered supe’s red cape. Interestingly, even though the actor did not bag the role, it paved the way for him to play another incredible character in Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys franchise.
Antony Starr has played Homelander so brilliantly throughout The Boys‘ runtime that he is now almost synonymous with the villain. It is hard to imagine anyone else as the character, and it almost seems like he was born to play the role. However, he was not the only actor who auditioned to play the character in The Boys.
Along with Antony Starr, another talented actor was reportedly a potential prospect for playing Homelander on the small screen. For obvious reasons, the actor eventually lost the role to Antony Starr. However, he later got to play another memorable character in the franchise, making it hard not to wonder how he would have been as the overpowered red-caped supe.
Patrick Schwarzenegger Had Auditioned To Play Homelander In The Boys
In an interview (via Happy Sad Confused podcast), Patrick Schwarzenegger revealed that he had auditioned to play Homelander in The Boys. However, he initially failed to get a callback from the show’s creator. Understanding how actors barely get one percent of the roles they audition for, Schwarzenegger did not think much about the rejection and moved on.
Interestingly, though, fate had something else in store for The White Lotus star. After his audition for Homelander, the franchise’s creators started eyeing him for a different role. Almost four years after The Boys season 1’s release, Schwarzenegger finally landed a role in the franchise, which would not have happened if he had not auditioned to play Homelander.
Schwarzenegger’s Homelander Audition Helped Him Land His Gen V Role
Image via Max
The show’s team reached out to Patrick Schwarzenegger before Gen V‘s production and told him they remembered his audition for Homelander. They asked him to audition again for the role of Golden Boy in the spin-off, and the rest was history. Schwarzenegger eventually got to play the supe character, who is more or less a younger version of Homelander.
Just like Homelander, Golden Boy carries the crushing burden of being one of the strongest supes in his world and feels divided between doing the right thing and succumbing to the corrupting influence of power. Even though Golden Boy dies in Gen V season 1’s early episodes, Patrick Schwarzenegger does an incredible job of portraying the character’s internal struggles.
Did You Know: Patrick Schwarzenegger also auditioned to play Clark Kent/Superman in James Gunn’s Superman.
Considering how Patrick Schwarzenegger perfectly plays a morally ambiguous character like Saxon Ratliff in The White Lotus, he undoubtedly would have been great as Homelander as well. However, Antony Starr’s portrayal of The Boys‘ main villain is so deeply layered and chilling, that it is hard to see anyone as his worthy replacement.
