Amazon Prime Video has announced the corrupt and yet much-celebrated Supes are set to be back on our screen in 2024, with The Boys trailer, which launched on December 2nd, promising more riot than ever. Season 4 will follow the looming election in the midst of which pro- and anti-supe protests break out.
The trailer also confirmed fairly obvious returns of Antony Starr and Karl Urban, who portray Homelander and Billy Butcher respectively in the satirical superhero television series based on the comic book of the same name.
What Inspired The Boys Star Karl Urban’s Hollywood Dreams
After the success of Season 3 – which sees Billy Butcher, who works for the government, under the supervision of Hughie Campbell, chase the legend of the first Superhero: Soldier Boy – Antony Starr and Karl Urban sat down for Prime Video to talk about various pages of their careers, including about growing up in New Zealand.
The Boys is a satirical take on obsession with superheroes, set in a universe where super-powered individuals work for a powerful corporation known as Vought International, which markets and monetizes them. There are no heroes in the show, just villains and anti-heroes looking to scrap whatever they can for themselves in any given situation.
As one would expect, the actors behind the scenes are not as self-centered as their on-screen avatars and have plenty of time to push each other positively to achieve the common goal. In fact, it’s the idea of camaraderie that attracted Urban toward filmmaking and Hollywood. During the conversation with Starr, the 51-year-old said (via Prime Video):
“For me, I would kind of define [his trajectory] it as a really long standing compulsion to this job. When I was about eight my mother worked in film facilities in Wellington, New Zealand and they would screen whatever movie that they had worked on that just completed… And I remember watching those movies and not only being kind of enamored with what I was seeing but also the camaraderie and the sense of unity and the sense of family that I got from the crew that was watching. To me, it was like, ‘I want to be part of this.'”
At the same age, Urban started acting, with his first role coming in the New Zealand television series Pioneer Woman. He had a single line in one episode of the show. He continued taking part in school stage productions but didn’t act professionally again until after high school. His first credited role was in the television series Shark in the Park in 1991. He made his Hollywood debut a decade later in the movie The Ghost Ship.
What Was Karl Urban’s Breakthrough Role in Hollywood
While Karl Urban makes headlines these days with his performance in The Boys, his most prominent role to date came almost two decades ago in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), which proved to be his breakthrough stint.
He portrayed Éomer, the third Marshal of the Mark in the last two movies in the series. Interestingly, when he found out that his character was an exemplary horseman, he invested six to eight weeks, five days a week, two hours a day to train and reach near that level (via IMDb).
Urban’s dedication translated well on the big screen and he won plenty of plaudits for his performance, leading to more opportunities in Hollywood, including the role of Dr. McCoy in Star Trek (2009).
Read more: “I’m a longtime fan of…”: Karl Urban on His Most Iconic $113M Role Before The Boys Fame
