The Boys Star Karl Urban On New Superhero Status

Although Amazon’s The Boys is an ensemble show, Stuart Heritage writes for The Guardian, with a sprawling collection of superheroes and antihero vigilantes, New Zealander Karl Urban has emerged as the show’s lead. His character, a violent everyman turned vigilante called Billy Butcher, dominates the show’s posters; his ferocious quest for vengeance drives forward the plot.

The show was a hit over lockdown – it is now probably Amazon’s flagship series – and public hunger for new episodes has been palpable for some time, Heritage writes.

This season, Butcher will get superpowers. Was it fun to finally get to be a superhero? “I had a lot of discussions about what having powers might be like,” Urban says. “And I was like: ‘Well, it’s gonna hurt, right?’ It comes back to the question: what is the cost of power? The cost is that it actually causes an extreme amount of pain.”

Original article by Stuart Heritage, The Guardian, May 31, 2022.

Photo by David Levene.