Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Boys series finale. The Boys’ scorching commentary on politics, media, and celebrity culture still burns three months after the series finale, which ended with the satisfying death of its despicable villain. Showrunner Eric Kripke took creative liberties with the comic books, and by Season 4, it became increasingly evident that the show had diverged from the source material. Looking back at that chaotic Season 5 and its divisive finale, it’s clear that the show made the right call by killing off Homelander. Aya Cash, who played Stormfront in Season 2, shared her thoughts about Homelander’s final scene during a recent conversation with MovieWeb. Cash recalled her experience working on the show, calling it “Wild, but also, like, very sweet” and adding, “There were some beautiful, tender moments, and I appreciated that.” Cash had previously said that she relished playing a villain, even one of the darkest characters in the show. Portraying a literal Nazi proved to be a challenge, however, and she admittedly disliked her character’s hateful dialogue. That’s why she had always been rooting for Butcher’s dysfunctional crew to have the upper hand. “Ultimately, the good guys win, even if it’s complicated,” she said.

The Boys culminated in the final showdown between Butcher (Karl Urban) and Homelander (Antony Starr) after the latter lost his superpowers, thanks to Kimiko’s (Karen Fukuhara) energy blast. It was jarring to see Butcher beating Homelander to a pulp, but the latter had it coming. It was also hilarious to see his failed attempts to fly, followed by a sobering realization that he was only human. Cash praised Starr’s performance in that scene, saying he perfectly captured Homelander’s desperation.
“Antony Starr, trying to jump and fly. Incredible. And also, that’s what we do when we do stunts. That’s actually the motion you do when you’re flying. So it’s very much what the actors are doing on set. When you think it looks really cool, they’re flying. That’s what we actually do.”
Cash described her character’s flying love scene with Homelander in Season 2, Episode 5, as particularly difficult to shoot because of the complicated rigging and wirework. She did prefer the physically taxing fight sequences, which required intense coordination, to the scenes where she had to depict the worst aspects of Stormfront — spewing toxic ideology, hate speech, and racial slurs.

Cash is set to reprise her role in the upcoming The Boys prequel, Vought Rising, a twisted murder mystery about the beginnings of the Vought company when it was still a US government military contractor. Set in the 1950s, Vought Rising will revolve around the early exploits of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Clara Vought (a.k.a. Stormfront) as the earliest iterations of Compound V supes. “We’ve finished shooting,” she told MovieWeb. “It’s one of the best things I’ve ever worked on, and I hope the fans love it as much as I do.”