In addition to Donald Trump, “The Boys” has targeted multiple real-world phenomena, from consumerism and celebrity culture  — which are at the heart of the show thanks to Vought and its corporate-sponsored superheroes — to white supremacy and social media influencers. It can be a tough line to walk, but the series does it well. The show’s fans were impressed by the big reveal of “The Boys” Season 2, for example, which combines the latter two concepts by revealing that the peppy and progressive social media star Stormfront (Aya Cash) is secretly a ruthless Nazi who was active during World War 2.

Likewise, Eric Kripke sees Homelander as more than just a simple Trump stand-in. He uses the character’s combination of emotional vulnerability and physical and social power to explore society’s reactions to toxic behavior from famous people — like, say, Homelander murdering a protester and getting cheered by the crowd at the end of “The Boys” Season 3.

“It’s a bigger issue than just Trump,” Kripke told Rolling Stone. “The more awful public figures act, the more fans they seem to be getting. That’s a phenomenon that we wanted to explore, that Homelander is realizing that he can actually show them who he really is and they’ll love him for it.”