‘The Boys’ Showrunner Eric Kripke on [Spoiler’s] Death: ‘I Would Have Kept Him Alive for Longer’
Two seasons into The Boys and viewers have seen heroes, villains, and innocents die in this tug of war for power. None of the deaths have been quiet or gentle, and that includes Deep’s animal friends.
With all the blood and brutality in this TV series, it may make one wonder if all these trips to the afterlife were destined or if some could have been avoided. The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke just revealed one character he regrets killing off.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers about The Boys Season 2, episode 7]
A quick recap of Supes and non-Supes who died since season 1
In terms of main characters or those who have helped spur the story along, there are some who met their gruesome end in ways that differ from the comic books.
Though the series differs from the comics in some ways, Kripke and his writing team have been very deliberate in how people are executed in the show.
Big-deal casualties include Hughie’s girlfriend Robin, Translucent, Shockwave, Jonah Vogelbaum, Kenji, Stillwell, Raynor, and the self-loathing Lamplighter played by Shawn Ashmore. The jury is still out on Black Noir because that allergy reveal threw everyone off.
Kripke had second thoughts about Lamplighter’s death
As viewers know, Lamplighter took his own life by igniting his flame and setting himself on fire. “I wanted to do it in front of my statue. I just wanted to make my dad proud,” he said. Symbolic and awful in one full swoop. Kripke opened up about killing off Lamplighter, a character fans only saw in two episodes.
“We wrote all that before we cast Shawn, and once we cast Shawn and we saw how good he was and how soulful and weary and, in a weird way, sympathetic he made Lamplighter, I really regretted that we were killing him,” Kripke told TV Line.
“If I could go back and do it again, knowing that I had Shawn and what he did with that character, I would have kept him alive for longer. But that was what that character was arced for from the beginning.”
Kripke explained that Lamplighter was ready to leave Earth due to his past and his involvement in killing Mallory’s grandchildren.
Kripke called Lamplighter ‘awesome’
It’s unclear if Kripke and his team have plans to take a page from The Boys’ comic series and resurrect Lamplighter, but for what it’s worth, he loved the character and Ashmore’s performance. When speaking to TV Guide, Kripke shared that Ashmore changed his mind about the plot.
“But Shawn made that character so world weary and sympathetic for someone who had done such terrible things, and made that character so interesting that I, along with the other writers, were like godda*n he’s an awesome character,” he said.
Only one more episode is left for season 2 and fans are hedging their bets on the head-exploding culprit. With so many allies taking hits in this quest to expose Vought for its malicious agenda, the series finale already feels a little scary. Catch the last episode of the season on Oct. 9.
