The Boys' Erin Moriarty Teases Starlight and Homelander's Dangerous Power Battle — Plus, Watch Season 2 Recap

Vlada Gelman
·5 min read
2

Now that Starlight is back within the ranks of The Seven, Season 3 of The Boys finds Annie in “a ‘careful what you wish for’ situation,” her portrayer Erin Moriarty tells TVLine.

“She wants more power at Vought so she can make more changes and do good,” the actress explains, “but that power is just a trigger for Homelander, who is a psychopathic, raging, murderous lunatic.”

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So even though Queen Maeve was able to blackmail The Seven’s leader into not hunting Starlight at the end of last season, the good-hearted supe is hardly out of harm’s way, Moriarty previews below.

And if your memory is fuzzy on what went down during The Boys Season 2 — it has been 18 long months! — we’ve got you covered there, too, with a TVLine Quickcap of the finale’s biggest twists. Press PLAY above for a refresher, then read on for scoop on Season 3 (premiering with its first three episodes this Friday on Prime Video).

TVLINE | At the end of Season 2, Starlight rejoined The Seven, although maybe not under the most welcoming circumstances. Now it’s one year later at the start of Season 3. So where do things stand for her within The Seven?
Now she’s trying to do what she has previously tried to do, which is figure out how much good she can do and how much change she can impart from her position working inside of Vought, working inside of this immensely corrupt evil corporation. There is an internal battle going on in terms of whether she’s going to be able to impart the most change and do the most good by working for them, or whether it would be by not working for them. And then also, working with a corporation that you feel so misaligned with is very abrasive to your psyche and soul. So she’s making a lot of personal sacrifices. She’s still trying to take every opportunity she can by working for Vought to use her power for good. She’s just simultaneously questioning if she can do enough while working for Vought.

TVLINE | Where does this leave her and Homelander in terms of their power dynamics?
Homelander is extremely insecure and a psychopath in Starlight’s eyes, and he’s spiraling into a psychosis, as we’ve seen in the trailer for Season 3. For someone who is so obsessed with power, and for someone who is so insecure, any increase in Starlight’s power is going to be a threat to him. And then he’s spiraling into this psychosis, which makes him even more dangerous. She’s really trying hard to maintain a façade, keep him at bay, yield her power for good, whilst also in certain scenes wondering if she’s going to survive him, and if he’s just going to laser her. Because she knows that the more power she gains, the more he’s going to feel threatened by her, and he’s a murderous lunatic. So who knows what’s going to happen?

The Boys
The Boys

TVLINE | On a totally different note, how are Annie and Hughie fairing as a couple as the season begins?


As the season begins, it’s really cool because we get to see them kind of established in their couple dynamic. They’ve gotten comfortable with each other. There’s been a bit of a time cut, and we see them living out their relationship in a day-to-day way that’s really sweet, and we see the love there, we see the bond there. They’ve both been through so much, and they’re both such moral anchors on the show. They are very empathetic towards each other, and there’s a deep understanding between each other that they don’t experience in other characters. So we do see the good nature of their relationship. And the interesting thing that plays out as the season progresses is that even though there’s one superhero involved in the relationship, and the circumstances surrounding them are different from our own world, they can transcend normal couple issues that tend to come up.

The Boys Jensen Ackles
The Boys Jensen Ackles

TVLINE | There’s also a lot of anticipation coming into this season about Soldier Boy. Does Starlight have a point of view about him or any feelings about him?


Yeah, of course. As I said, she’s just trying to make the world a better place, trying to save the world from the evil corruptions of Vought. And then Soldier Boy enters the equation, and he’s kind of like Homelander 1.0. So now she’s got this whole other destructive entity that she has to take on in addition to Homelander and Vought. All of them are adding up to there being such a substantial amount of evil and corruption in the world and a threat to human society. And the irony of the fact that here’s this corporation that she joined so she could help save the world, and now she needs to kind of take them down, take Homelander down, who is the poster boy for this corporation, and try to take Soldier Boy down, who was the original poster boy for this corporation. So the stakes are raised, and the pressure on her shoulders is immense.

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