On April 8, 2026, Prime Video launched the final season of its hit superhero drama, “The Boys.” Like other hero-theme shows like Amazon’s “Invincible” and Disney’s “Daredevil: Born Again,” “The Boys”’s latest slew of episodes has drawn considerable attention from audiences worldwide. Though discussion largely focuses on plotlines and characters, conversation tends to linger on the show’s political controversies, innuendos, and parallels as well.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead
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Originally released in 2019, the show centers on a world dominated by superheroes, particularly by the show’s version of the Justice League, known as “The Seven.” Led by the world’s strongest superhero (a.k.a. “supe”), the Homelander, The Seven are beloved by the world for their saviorism and personalities.
The show’s protagonists, however, see through The Seven. Led by psychopathic Aussie vigilante William Butcher, The Boys are both figuratively and literally an antihero team of misfits.
As it turns out, The Seven and supes alike are owned and created by the pharmaceutical company Vought, whose Nazi founder formulated the super-serum Compound V to unleash supes onto the world. Their ties to corporate reveal that, aside from heavy marketing, their super-feats are completely staged, boosting branding and manipulating public outlook on politics and Vought.
As the show progresses, The Seven’s members have been exposed not as Earth’s greatest heroes, but as their most sadistic, wicked egotistical villains.
The Deep, an Aquaman parody, is in reality a narcissistic sexual assaulter. Firecracker, a stereotype of American rednecks, forgoes her seemingly holy spirit by molesting a teenager. Sister Sage, the world’s smartest person and supposed embodiment of a minority activist, is, in reality, a manipulative psychopath keen on eradicating the lesser, normal human race. Even Soldier Boy, a Captain America parody and historic icon of justice, is a fraud, drug addict and a straight-up asshole. Essentially, “The Boys” proffers a unique supe for every flavor of crime and immorality imaginable.
The pairing of world-famous supes with these double-life, vexing personas generally parodies real themes of widespread distrust of celebrities, whose public images are often debunked by more dastardly attitudes and behavior.
The most direct parody of them all, however, exists between the Homelander and America’s current president, Donald Trump. This parallel has been explicitly confirmed by the series’ showrunner, Eric Kripke, who stated, “The Homelander’s always been a Trump analogue for me.”
“The urgency of our team’s writing reflects that. We’re angrier and more scared as the years go on, so that is just being reflected in our writing,” Kipke would further elaborate in a 2022 interview with Rolling Stones.
Many of the Homelander’s similarities with the current president lie simply in his presentation. Like Trump, the Homelander preaches American spirit, going the extra step of wearing the Star Spangled Banner as a cape. His devout followers, who typically wear red hats, echo these patriotic sentiments no matter the layers of controversy he puts himself in. The Homelander is also quite charismatic, performing excellent speeches to rally any crowd in his presence. Even his blonde hair seems to mimic POTUS.
Personality-wise, the Homelander is an egomaniac, a common criticism placed against Trump. He views himself as the greatest supe ever, emboldens his loyal fanbase, exacerbates public tensions and strives to achieve political power constantly. In addition, the Homelander takes a lack of accountability for his actions, typically covering up his mistakes or pinning blame on others. This aversion to bad press and elevation is similar to controversies Trump himself has faced in the past and to this day.
However, actions speak louder than words. In “The Boys,” the Homelander is responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people and has purposefully tangled himself in foreign conflicts. Though his frequent murder of civilians is an extreme exaggeration, it serves as an overt satire of politicians’ lack of regard for human life and constant involvement in global wars. Interestingly, the fictional Homelander’s deeds abroad were aired on television years ago, only actualized by Trump in 2026 when he began his first real conflict as president upon bombing Iran.
As mentioned before, the Homelander has a large ego that frequently must be put in check. As a result, Vought often provides the supe with generous PR support to cover up and clarify his multitude of controversies. Simultaneously, they aim to popularize rhetoric used against their political adversaries, namely “Starlighters,” the in-universe parallel of contemporary liberal activist groups.
Unsurprisingly, this aspect of the show is almost exactly on par with President Trump. Besides his Truth Social platform, which is the source of most of his administration’s inflammatory vocabulary, government sites and PR also spread conservative sentiment and high prose for the president. Even Trump’s cabinet do their best to cover his controversies, most notably in front of Congress, though figures like Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have come under recent scrutiny for their contemptuous rants during hearings.
In Season 5 of the show, the Homelander’s targeting of Starlighters takes an even larger step forward. After political manipulation that gives him control over the (in-universe) president, the Homelander orders law enforcement to arrest and incarcerate Starlighters and similar opposition in “Freedom Camps,” a parallel of Holocaust labor camps and, more relevantly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across America.
Though the level to which the Homelander’s imprisoned people is unrealistically high, it reflects ICE’s activity nationwide since the spring of 2025. Well-documented on the internet today, ICE has worked under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enact President Trump’s deportation policies, which seek to remove illegal immigrants from American soil.
Opposition to the deportation of illegal immigrants has remained a split issue amongst Americans since Trump’s first term from 2016 to 2020, but 2025 marked a significant revitalization of the effort that saw unprecedented, unified protest akin to that of the Starlighters. Allegations of ICE agents’ unlawful and authoritarian behavior, from kidnapping legal residents of the United States to treating detainees inhumanely to racially profiling civilians to murdering innocent Americans, have made Trump’s immigration policies extremely unfavorable in the eyes of many.
Interestingly, the show’s production schedule would suggest that more recent ICE controversies weren’t reflected in “The Boys,” but rather actualizations of themes in the show, like illegal detainment and unaddressed murder by government agents.
Naturally, these political themes tying the Homelander, a serial mass murderer and sociopath, to President Trump have given “The Boys” an unpopular name with many viewers, among other reasons largely political in nature. Although these are the inevitable byproducts of messaging in modern television, one storyline in Season 5 has drawn particular bipartisan criticism.
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As the Homelander supersedes the most powerful governments in the world, his last step is using the immortality drug V1 that’s kept his father, Soldier Boy, alive and young since World War II, as a means of divine ascension. The Homelander intends to do this not solely for the purposes of living forever, but also to impose himself as America’s true God.
Prior to this chapter in the show, Christianity had been utilized as a means to reflect the supes’ conservative nature, as seen in the likes of Firecracker. Understandably, many fans of the show were dismayed by their religion’s association with evil and deception. The Homelander’s desire to become God himself and subsequent disrespect of God’s prophets only worsened the situation, extending this blatant blasphemy to Islam as well.
However, “The Boys” salvages itself through further elaboration in later episodes. As it is revealed, the Homelander’s desire to be God alienates him from Christians in the world of “The Boys” as well, leading to their own form of persecution and rejection. Firecracker, the aforementioned devout Christian American redneck, deviates from her loyalty to the Homelander at the notion of disrespecting Jesus Christ, a bold step for her character that leads to unforeseen consequences later in the show. So while some may view Christianity’s prevalence in “The Boys” as a mockery of America’s founding religion, the show does a good job in distinguishing the Homelander’s divine ideologies from real-world religion.
Instead, the Homelander’s obsession with God serves as yet another parallel to President Trump. The latter has maintained himself as an icon of Christian faith in America, a value he’s promoted since his campaign trail, despite numerous “unholy” allegations brought up against him time and again. More glaringly, though, Trump has been viewed by many Republicans and his followers as a Christian icon.
Sentiments like this were made especially prominent during his 2024 presidential campaign following the attempted assassination of his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. During this incident, a bullet allegedly pierced the president’s ear, narrowly missing his head. In spite of this frightening event, Trump managed to stand up, pumping his fist with the American flag waving behind him in what is now an iconic photograph.
Following this event, many of his supporters argued his survival was a sign of divinity, amplifying his supposed ties to Christianity and holiness. Throughout his presidency, this message has become even more prominent, with pictures of him as the center of mass prayers and (AI-generated) impersonating the Pope circulating online. Most damningly was a recent AI-generated picture released on his Truth Social account, depicting him as Jesus Christ himself, a clear parallel with the Homelander’s attempts to appear as god. Once again, the show’s production schedule would suggest Trump’s pictures are, in fact, an actualization of the show’s messaging, further strengthening the argument that he and the Homelander are alike.
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From the personification of politicians to references to scandals (e.g., Diddy parties) to nods towards political activist movements (e.g., Black Lives Matter), the show isn’t afraid to associate itself with real-world scenarios.
Amidst a wave of depolitization in Hollywood, however, “The Boys” manages to justify its innuendos with pinpoint themes, which have managed to be almost prophetic in their accuracy. Coupled with gritty, untamed humor, fresh Homelander memes every single episode and super “heroes” for days, Prime Video is easily capable of maintaining its audience through thick and thin.
