The next season of Amazon's subversive superhero show The Boys is heading our way, and one of the stars is revealing something personal about herself: Erin Moriarty, who plays Starlight, shared on her Instagram that she was diagnosed with Graves disease, an autoimmune disorder which affects the thyroid gland. In a nutshell, the body mistakenly produces too much thyroid hormone. It can result in a variety of symptoms including heat and light sensitivity, eye pressure or irritation, weight loss, and tremors. If left untreated, it can lead to heart problems and osteoporosis.
"A month ago, I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease," Moriaty wrote. "Within 24 hours of beginning treatment, I felt the light coming back on. It’s been increasing in strength ever since. If yours is dimming, even slightly, go get checked. Don’t 'suck it up' and transcend suffering; you deserve to be comfy. Shit’s hard enough as is."
In her post, Moriaty shared some before-and-after text messages she sent to her parents, and some sound pretty serious. "There aren’t moments anymore, not even a passing 5 seconds, when I feel normal. I’ve never had that," she told her mom before her diagnosis. "Not one. It’s not just fatigue – it’s an ineffable, system wide cry for help and I don’t know how long I can remain in this state.” Afterwards, things improved markedly: “I already feel a world of a difference, primary thought (as of now): ‘damn, this is how I’m supposed to feel? I’ve been missing out!'” she texted her dad.
"Autoimmune disease manifests differently in everybody/every body," Moriarty wrote. "Your experience will be different from mine. My experience will be different from yours. Perhaps greatly, perhaps minutely. One thing I can say: if I hadn’t chalked it all up to stress and fatigue, I would’ve caught this sooner."
Obviously it's awesome that Moriaty is on the mend, and for a disease she wasn't even aware she had until last month; I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to go through life feeling generally bad but not knowing why, assuming it was just how you feel normally.
At the moment, Moriarty is in the thick of filming on the fifth and final season of The Boys along with the rest of the cast. They've been shooting since November of last year, so if they're not done by now, they likely will be soon; that's a good long time.
Then again, this is the last-ever season of The Boys, so I'm sure they want to take the time to do it right. When last we left our heroes, such as they are, Homelander (Antony Starr) was tightening his control on the United States. He kidnapped most of the Boys, with only Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Starlight remaining free. So Erin Moriarty will surely have a lot to do whenever the new episodes start coming out, probably sometime in 2026.
Meanwhile, the second season of Gen V, a spinoff of The Boys set at a college for superheroes, will premiere on Prime Video on September 17. Amazon is also working on a show called Vought Rising, which is set in the 1950s and will revolve around some of the first superheroes created by Vought International, including familiar faces like Stormfront (Aya Cash) and Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). We don't have a firm release for that show yet. In any case, it's clear that Amazon doesn't intend to let The Boys universe die just because the original show is about to end.
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h/t Deadline