The Boys Season 2: Giancarlo Esposito on the Hidden Power of Stan Edgar

This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Boys Season 2

One of the major lingering questions when it comes to The Boys’ main offenders is the true role of Vought International CEO Stan Edgar. So far, the character has been played calmly and deliberately by Giancarlo Esposito, who is still best known for his major villain roles as Gustavo “Gus” Fring in Breaking Bad and Moff Gideon in Disney+’s live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. But you’d be forgiven for wondering why he’d sign up for a role on the popular Amazon comic book series as just another corporate puppet-master – albeit one who controls a deeply disturbing multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

We’ve had a chance to see a lot more of Stan Edgar in the first three episodes of The Boys Season 2 after the death of Vought’s Senior Vice President of Hero Management, Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue). You probably recall Homelander’s late handler being eye-lasered through the face at the end of Season 1 (how could you forget!), which ultimately gave the psychopathic supe a boost of courage to approach Stan Edgar and question Vought’s internal machinations.

Despite their clashes, Esposito says Edgar isn’t afraid of Homelander in the slightest.

“I believe he’s truly fearless,” Esposito told CinemaBlend, noting that after Homelander confronts him about adding Stormfront to The Seven, Edgar realizes that Homelander will be more of a personal problem. “He really starts to get that this guy’s ego is out of control, and he has to put him in his place, but also has to educate him.”

Esposito admits that he himself would be scared of Homelander, having seen what he can do to people without remorse, but adds “I don’t believe Stan Edgar has any fear of Homelander at all. And when I was doing the scene, I thought, ‘Just think in regards to being very calm, and dealing with a child, but with respect.’ But also, you can’t forget the vision of how Homelander could take you out. So in the back of my mind, I’ve got Compound V in my blood, so I’m not worried at all.”

This is an interesting aside! Though it could turn out to be a remark lost in translation, many fans of the series have been wondering whether Stan Edgar would turn out to be a supe himself, and some theories even posit that he will be revealed as the very first supe, whose blood is the origin of Compound V.

If a sliver of these theories were true, it could certainly explain why Edgar barely blinks when Homelander is in a rage – perhaps he could turn out to be more powerful than any of the supes we’ve met so far, regardless?

“I think what Edgar is trying to do is to bring value back to humanity in some way,” Esposito teases. “But that takes a certain type of control.”

The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke has also recently added fuel to the fire where rumors of Stan Edgar’s ultimate plans are concerned, but whatever they are, Stormfront – who was revealed to be a creation of the Third Reich during WWII in the comics – is key to their success.

“Here’s what I will tease, without giving it away, which is Edgar is an intelligent, Machiavellian CEO,” Kripke told TheWrap. “We hint pretty strongly from Episode 201 on that he knows the V news is gonna come out and he’s already got plans in place as to how to turn that to his advantage — of which Stormfront will be a big part of.”

“He says to Homelander, ‘I don’t have to tell you why I put Stormfront on the team.’ But ultimately, she’s on the team because he’s got a plan of how he can leverage this news about Compound V into more profits for the company. So I think they’re going to survive just fine. I think at the end of the day, which is sort of a point we’re making, so many of these companies, they say, ‘We’re too big to fail!’ And for some reason that’s OK? And I think Vought is no exception.”

We’ll have to watch this space to find out what Stan Edgar really has up his sleeve.