With the arrival of Omni-Man in Mortal Kombat 1, the countdown is on until the next character from the first Kombat Pack arrives. We know the characters who will be there outside of Omni-Man include Takeda, Quan Chi, Peacemaker, Ermac, and Homelander, but what they’ll play like, or when they’ll precisely come out, is a bit up in the air. A report said that they would be released once per month, meaning that some won’t come out until 2024. That seems very likely because we’re almost into the new year. However, one thing that was “certain” was that Anthony “Toni” Starr would be the voice of Homelander in the game.
The reason for that belief was that J.K. Simmons came in to reprise his role as Omni-Man after doing it in the animated series Invincible. Furthermore, John Cena has been confirmed to be the voice of Peacemaker in the game, so since Homelander was directly modeled after Toni Starr from The Boys series, it made sense that he would voice his character again. Unfortunately, Twitter helped reveal the truth:
If the actor is to be taken at his word, that means he won’t be the voice of Homelander, which will be a bummer for many fans. It’s unclear why he turned down the role or whether he was even asked to do it. But given that the other actors were asked to return and voice their characters again, we will guess that an offer was made. It should also be noted that Toni Starr has done voice acting in the past via Homelander, as a spinoff series had him voice the character in animated form.
Fans were a bit put off by this announcement, especially since it clearly is Starr’s face that they used to make Homelander. But the reason for that is simple: he IS Homelander in many respects. Yes, the character originally came from the comics, but the Amazon Prime series helped establish the character as one of the most vile villains in all of fiction. Starr was so good in his role that many people believed he should’ve been nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal.
All we can hope for now is that NetherRealm Studios can find someone who can at least do CLOSE to what Starr did in the role. That’s a tough ask, but given that they have brought in “soundalikes” in the past, like with The Terminator and The Joker, they’ll likely get someone good.
