The other reason for the gender swap was that the writers wanted to shine a light on how far-right ideas are now being promoted. “A lot of hate and negative thought these days, if you look online, is packaged in really slick, social media-attractive ways. It’s not like the old dudes with crew cuts in the 1960s newsreels anymore,” Eric Kripke explained. He and the other writers were inspired by a lot of younger alt-right influencers, “who are trying to hook in a new generation.” It’s hard not to look at young, “hip” figures like Posie Parker, a supposedly feminist anti-trans activist whose movement seems to have an alarming number of Nazi supporters, and not see the parallels to Stormfront. “We sort of wanted to reflect how insidious that is,” said Kripke.
Another interesting benefit of the gender swap was that it allowed Stormfront to develop a romantic relationship with the heterosexual Homelander. Although Homelander was originally intimidated and angered by Stormfront stealing his spotlight, he immediately changed his tune when she revealed she was into him. Although it’s not clear how long their love could’ve lasted if the Boys hadn’t ruined it, Stormfront’s ability to keep him under control for so long was genuinely impressive. She wraps him around her finger to the point where she temporarily surpasses him as the show’s main villain.
For a series that’s often struggled to play the long game with Homelander, this was a perfect way for “The Boys” to both flesh him out as a character and keep him around longer without testing the viewers’ patience too much. Stormfront might have changed drastically from the comics to the show, but looking back a season later, it’s definitely hard to argue with the results.