Antony Starr's standout homecoming on “The Boys” was initially much more brutal

Showrunner Eric Kripke tells EW early drafts had Homelander coming to 'basically pull the wings off flies.'

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Boys season 4, episode 4, "Wisdom of the Ages."

Antony Starr just delivered the performance of the season for The Boys, but the way the episode was initially conceived, things could've been much more gruesome.

Starr's Homelander has a grand homecoming in this week's season 4 episode "Wisdom of the Ages," in which he returns to the secret Vought lab where he was raised and experimented upon to become the most powerful supe in existence.

Related: The Boys creator responds to fans asking if that's Karl Urban's butthole on season 4

At first, it seems like the Superman-esque masochist is looking for some catharsis; he's all smiles as he exits the elevator with an ice cream cake in hand. Then things take a turn when he starts punishing his old handlers for their past treatment of him. He exacts revenge by burning one of them alive, castrating another with his laser vision, and then, eventually, massacring them all except for one lone survivor.

"The original draft had Homelander coming down there and being just cruel top to bottom," showrunner Eric Kripke tells Entertainment Weekly. "It was very much like he was coming down there to torture those people and basically pull the wings off flies. Ant called me and he said, 'That feels wrong to me. This is like my home. I think there would be moments where I would be very childlike and sometimes confused. I could be cruel, but then I could feel bad about being cruel and I could just be this mess where you never know how I'm going to react next.'"

Related: How The Boys pulled off its own human centipede in season 4

Kripke says he and Starr worked on the scenes together to achieve the final product we now see on screen. "Man, was he right," the series creator continues. "What makes that story is he comes down there and he almost becomes that kid again. So it's really remarkable and it's terrifying."

The Boys has historically received one Emmy Award win for Outstanding Stunt Coordination, while garnering seven other Emmy nominations, including Best Drama Series. But so far, the actors have not been recognized. Kripke has one note for voters after this particular episode: "Give that guy an Emmy already! He's doing such high-caliber work and he deserves the recognition."

The Boys season 4 releases new episodes every Thursday on Prime Video.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.