Antony Starr’s Emmy snub has Homelander fans insisting he was robbed

Right, strap in if you care about awards-season absurdities, because Antony Starr’s continued Emmy shutout has reached a frankly laughable conclusion. With nominations for the 2026 Emmys just out, Starr – who literally just finished his last turn as Homelander on The Boys – has once again been ignored by the Academy. If you’re a fan, you probably saw some variation of the outrage flood your timeline: he’s never once been nominated for what most reckon is one of TV’s most unnervingly complex performances. Classic.

How on Earth?

Let’s not sugar-coat it: Antony Starr plays Homelander like a man possessed. One minute he’s needy and pathetic, the next, he’ll melt your face clean off with a glare and a God complex. It’s the sort of role where you could easily go full pantomime villain, but Starr actually makes it uncomfortable, which (in my experience) is much harder. This isn’t just my opinion, either – it’s a running theme with critics, viewers, anyone who’s ever pressed play on that show. Homelander’s as unpredictable as telly gets, and Starr managed to make a potentially silly character feel like an existential threat.

Fans Take to the Internet (Again)

When the Emmy list dropped and Starr’s name wasn’t there – again – the reaction was, if anything, more predictable than the result. Here’s a taste of the consensus:

• ‘The fact that Antony Starr has never received an Emmy nomination for playing Homelander in The Boys is one of the biggest awards snubs of the last decade. He didn’t just play a villain – he made Homelander terrifying, charismatic, pathetic, and unpredictable all at once.’
• Another summed up the running joke: ‘Homelander getting snubbed every year is the most on-brand irony television has given us.’
• There was even ‘INCREDIBLE snubbery at its worst. Unfathomable. Unbelievable. And frankly, f------ ridiculous.’ Subtle, that one.
• And honestly, this next one might cut deepest: ‘Antony Starr is the reason people watch this show. Criminal snub. He is going to melt down everyone with his laser eye.’

The running theme? One of TV’s most memorable villains, who actually anchors the show, couldn’t get a sniff of a nomination, let alone a win. Fans aren’t taking this quietly – but at this rate, it’s almost a tradition to rage-post about it every summer.

The Boys: Not Totally Ignored

To be fair, the Academy didn’t skip over The Boys entirely. The series did pick up five technical nominations – so, think Outstanding Stunt Coordination, Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, and Sound Editing for Drama/Comedy. All very worthy, just not the sort of thing that gets the fans off the fence, is it?

'The fact that Antony Starr has never received an Emmy nomination for playing Homelander in The Boys is one of the biggest awards snubs of the last decade. He didn’t just play a villain – he made Homelander terrifying, charismatic, pathetic, and unpredictable all at once.'