The Boys' Antony Starr reflected on his pre-COVID-19 days portraying Homelander, sharing a behind-the-scenes-photo from when it was still safe to act in front of a large crowd of extras.
Starr posted a photo on Instagram from the set of Season 1, Episode 5, "Good for the Soul," an episode where Homelander preaches his nationalistic -- and xenophobic -- beliefs at a festival full of believers. "...had to repost this," the actor wrote. "One of my favorite scenes of the show... Ranting at a crowd like a megalomaniac creep... Not sure how we will pull these crowd scenes off but I’ll bet our awesome team will come up with something."
Earlier in January, Starr confirmed that he was heading up to Canada to quarantine prior to filming The Boys' third season. Season 3 will be the first time its cast will film around the restrictions and limitations of COVID-19. Set restrictions will make filming exterior scenes difficult, which Starr confirmed when he stated, "It limits us to the interior [shooting of scenes], initially."
However, The Boys are not new to creating crowds on set. In Season 2, Episode 5, Homelander fantasized about using his superpowered/laser eyes to annihilate a crowd. VFX Supervisor Stephan Szpak-Fleet, who coordinated and created the scene, broke down how this iconic scene came to be in an interview with Corridor Crew.
Szpak-Fleet cited this scene as incredibly difficult to shoot. The VFX team shot during "the coldest day in history in Toronto," which meant the VFX team not only had to reconstruct the environment -- to remove snow from the scene -- but also had to do "breath removal," so the actors wouldn't appear to be filming in winter. "You're seeing the complete replacement of environment," he said.
The VFX Supervisor also clarified how many people were in the crowd. In reality, there were only 12 actors on set who "fell down" as if shot by Homelander's lasers and a small group of 10 people running away from the action. CGI created the background actors -- including their blood splatters and protest posters.
Any close-up shot was likely of a person as Szpak-Fleet said, "We try to limit CGI in close up as much as possible." The image of the dead crowd was a group of actors on the ground covered in red paint. Digital effects layered on top of them and in the background to give the illusion of a mass homicide on-screen.
Currently, there is no confirmed release date for The Boys' Season 3. However, Seasons 1 and 2 previously released ten months after their filming ended. Since it's known that Season 3's filming is expected to begin in February and end in August, it's likely Season 3 will premiere on Amazon Prime sometime in late 2022, pending any delays from COVID-19.
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