Well, that’s it folks: Antony Starr didn’t receive one single Emmy nomination for his career-defining portrayal as Homelander, and at this point, it’s more than frustrating. Every year since The Boys first premiered on Prime Video, we’ve eagerly awaited the Emmy nominations expecting to see his name on the list, and every year these hopes have been shut down. Given season five was also the final chapter, that means there’s no hope of him making the cut for Homelander. None. Nada. For all of the fifth season’s faults, Starr never let us down. I’d go as far as to say he’s among the best TV villains of all time, and that’s all thanks to the actor’s nuanced, bone-chilling performance. And Homelander isn’t an easy villain to get right. Despite being an excellent character in the original The Boys comics, translating that to the small screen could easily have tipped over to the cartoonish side. But Starr made it look easy, perfectly balancing Homelander’s all-American hero persona with the narcissistic, deeply insecure monster lurking beneath. His micro-expressions and facial work are unmatched. He delivered humour and horror in equal measure – hell, he deserves an award just for the sheer amount of milk he had to drink throughout his time on the show. Credit: Prime Video So why, Emmys, is he still not getting recognition? To me, it highlights an ongoing issue when it comes to the awards season. Antony Starr’s Emmys snubs highlight the issue with genre bias The Emmys have never seemed entirely sure what to do with genre television. Hell, they’re still insisting The Bear is a comedy despite the fact that none of us were laughing (we were sobbing). Starr’s snub might be the most glaring example, but genre bias isn’t just a problem exclusive to the Emmys. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror and, in this case, superhero content are often overlooked at awards ceremonies in favour of prestige titles. It’s not as though the Academy refuses to recognise genre TV altogether. Performances in shows like The Penguin, The Last of Us and Severance have broken through in recent years. But they’re often titles that fit the mould of what awards bodies consider to be prestige TV. Performances like Starr’s are still dismissed as comic book roles, despite demanding the same (often more) emotional range and complexity as any awards darling. If Homelander was in a gritty HBO drama instead of a satirical superhero series, I find it hard to believe we’d still be having this conversation. I don’t want to hear about the competition being too great. Not to disparage the 2026 nominations, but the list for this year’s ‘lead actor in a comedy series’, for instance, includes Wonder Man’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Rooster’s Steve Carell, Widow’s Bay’s Matthew Rhys, Shrinking’s Jason Segel, and Only Murders in the Building’s Martin Short. No offence, but Starr blows these out of the park (and that’s coming from someone who believes all of these performances were great). The irony is that lower budget genre storytelling is becoming the new mainstream in TV and film. Just look at the breakout success of Obsession and Backrooms. At some point, the Emmys and the wider awards system need to stop treating genre as a guilty pleasure and start recognising its ambition. Because if Starr’s Homelander can’t get the honour, then what the hell are we even doing here? For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: Prime Video Post navigation Next story
