The Boys features a tonne of great characters, many of whom are larger than life. However, it's Hughie Campbell and Starlight who serve as our entry point into this twisted world, and their relationship was a huge part of the show's first year. That looks set to continue in the upcoming season two as well, though we obviously find them in a very different place after everything that's happened.
They've both grown in confidence, but with Hughie now trying to lead The Boys and Starlight becoming a little more devious in how she deals with her teammates, do they risk losing themselves and what they like about each other? That's the question we put to stars Jack Quaid and Erin Moriarty during a recent roundtable interview, and they shared some big hints about what's to come.
Moriarty: That’s a really interesting question.
Quaid: That is. Go ahead, Erin.
Moriarty: I think Hughie and Starlight serve as, you know, kind of standard examples of people maybe perhaps from a small town or sheltered world where they’ve been sheltered by their parents, then they leave their home and get exposed to some of the realities of the world and heartbreak and the fact not everyone is to be trusted. I do think it’s very common to momentarily lose yourself as a by product of putting up too thick of a wall. I went through that. You go from being naive to aware, and then almost too distrustful. I think that in the beginning of season two, Annie is in a place of being heartbroken and having such a thick wall up that she’s just on autopilot and has lost a little bit of her core self. A big part of her season two trajectory and journey is finding her way back to herself and a middle ground of not being naive, but still staying true to who she is.
Quaid: That’s just an interesting tension that our characters go through a lot of the time. You have to be the audience surrogate in a lot of ways, and you do want your character to step up for themselves, but you don’t want them to go too far. That is something I’ve always found interesting about playing Hughie. There are times he steps over the line and recognises it, but whose job is it to pull him back or does he have to pull himself back? I think that’s one of the key aspects to the character that I’ve really enjoyed playing over the past two seasons. It’s been awesome.
It seems the relationship between Hughie and Starlight will deepen a lot during season two, and taking them down some darker paths will be no bad thing. We just have to hope they're able to remain the characters we love, though it does sound like that's something they'll both struggle with.
The first three episodes of The Boys arrive on Amazon on September 4th, with the following five instalments joining them week by week. We'll have a review of the former for you next Monday, but for now, you can check out the action-packed trailer for the show's second season below: