How The TV Series Changes Lamplighter
As faithful as the TV series is to the comic book version of The Boys in terms of the basic plot, it tends to introduce some pretty significant changes when it comes to the individual characters and their respective back-stories. That's certainly been the case with Season 2's biggest new addition, Stormfront, and it remains true with Lamplighter as well.In the comics, Lamplighter is depicted as more or less an analogue to Green Lantern. He's a hero who can control and shape fire in the same way Hal Jordan forms constructs out of his ring's energy. That Green Lantern influence isn't quite as obvious in the show, in part because we mostly see Lamplighter as a retired hero who carries his trusty lighter rather than his flaming staff. In general, The Seven are a pretty direct riff on the Justice League in the comics, and slightly less so in the TV series.
One of the darkest reveals in the comic (and one of the biggest changes between the comic and TV series) comes as readers learn The Seven tried and failed to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks due to their own selfishness and incompetence. Even though the US government covers up the truth, Lamplighter retires shortly after. Butcher and his original team decide to blackmail The Seven with the threat of revealing the truth to the public. In response, Lamplighter takes it upon himself to kill Gregory Mallory's grandchildren as a way of intimidating The Boys into silence.That merely escalates the feud between the two teams. To keep the peace and prevent The Seven's public image from being soiled, Homelander turns over Lamplighter to Butcher and his team, who proceed to savagely beat the hero before shooting him and throwing his body out of a plane. However, Vought recovers the body and restores Lamplighter to life, albeit as a glorified zombie with no higher brain functions.
While the TV series retains some of these elements, the execution is much different. A series of flashbacks show Mallory and her team attempted to blackmail Lamplighter into becoming their mole within the Seven. Instead, Vought dispatches their creation to assassinate Mallory. Or so he thinks. He instead winds up murdering Mallory's grandchildren. The guilt of that act compels him to retire, and he takes up a new role in overseeing Vought's test subjects in a psychiatric institute. In the end, Lamplighter helps his enemies survive the superhuman jailbreak, and Mallory reluctantly agrees to spare his life. It's a far more noble end to his story compared to the comic.
From Iceman to Lamplighter
Ashmore told us that as a longtime superhero and comic book fan, he was eager to be involved with The Boys after watching Season 1. In fact, he tested for several different Season 2 roles before keying in on the idea of playing Lamplighter, a character about as different from Iceman as possible."I actually auditioned for several characters on the show, but when Lamplighter came up, I thought, 'Man, this would be cool to sort of come back to do something in the superhero space that's completely the opposite of what people think of me as Bobby Drake Iceman and in that area.' So I just thought it'd be fun. I thought it'd be different. And it's exciting to be on the show, but also to come back to the superhero genre and do something totally different."
Ashmore suspects that appealing role-reversal is what helped him land the part in the first place, with showrunner Eric Kripke and his team exploring a very different side of an actor made famous by the X-Men movies."I haven't really talked to Eric about it directly, but I'm pretty sure that knowing The Boys and knowing the tone and the attitude that they take, that was definitely a big part of potentially them casting me or thinking about me for the role is that it's just unexpected," said Ashmore. "And sort of in the face of what the normal thing would be for a superhero show. And I love that. So yeah, it was fun to be a completely different type of character in the same genre."
That all being said, while there's a definite irony in the idea of Ashmore playing a character with the exact same powers as Iceman's nemesis Pyro, Lamplighter wasn't specifically intended to be a spoof of the X-Men movies. As Ashmore explains, the show's interpretation of the character had already been established before he auditioned for the role.
"I mean, it seems to me that that kind of makes sense," said Ashmore. "But again, Lamplighter was Lamplighter before I was cast, so it wasn't as if they were like, 'Oh, we'll cast Shawn, who people know as Iceman, and then make Lamplighter a fire character,' or more of that. So I think it was just the direction that they took. And then again, I think my casting sort of poked fun a little bit at the whole situation."
"It was fun to be a completely different type of character in the same genre."
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Giving Lamplighter New Depth
As we've explored, Lamplighter's story takes a very different turn in the TV series versus the comics. Where's he's mostly a figure of ridicule in the source material, Episode 6 works to give Lamplighter depth and explore how his shared rivalry with Frenchie is one built mostly on a misunderstanding. This episode humanizes Lamplighter in a way the comic doesn't."To me, it was very clear when I read even the sides for the character and then when I read the script, what their intention with Lamplighter was," said Ashmore. "To stir up the pot with The Boys, to bring back this character that had such an effect on all of them, from Mallory on down, and Frenchie obviously, and everybody that was involved at the time. So that made sense to me... This was a great way into where Vought was taking this experimentation and how they're using V and how they were going about that.
Ashmore continued, "To me, it made really good sense in the second season to have this character pop in, stir up the pot with the boys, threaten Vought, and sort of go from there."But humanized or not, Lamplighter is clearly a very dark and flawed person in any version of this story. We were curious if Ashmore had trouble getting into the mindset of the character and inhabiting a world where "superheroes" are often little more than sociopathic mass-murders. How tough is that process?
"Surprisingly easy, mostly because the material is so good," said Ashmore. "And again, I think what works with The Boys is that our supes, they're the villains, I guess you could say, quote-unquote, but they're really not. They're just people, flawed people, and Lamplighter's no different. He's done horrible things. He is a murderer. He's done some very, very bad things. But what was interesting to me is that I don't think that Lamplighter's played as a villain and I certainly didn't look at him like that. He was just a human being who has this ability who got caught up with Vought and with this fame and success, and just got caught up in these trappings and in this machine. And then everything else that happens sort of happened. I don't think that he was an evil person. He's just done some very evil things."
Ashmore continued, "And so I think we see both sides of Lamplighter. It's not straightforward, like, 'Well, he's the bad guy and now the boys are coming after him.' He's had to sort of atone and look at the things that he's done now that he's not in The Seven. Now that the machine that protected him and built him up is gone, now he's left to look at what he did and who he is. I thought that was interesting. And that's how I approached the character. And that's how I tried to play the character. Not that he's just this evil sup and that he's a sociopath and a murderer. He is all those things, but there's a lot more to him."This encounter with Lamplighter also promises to have a lingering effect on The Boys and Frenchie in particular. Frenchie's decision to save Lamplighter's life is a reminder of the true enemy he and his friends are trying to destroy.
"I always looked at it that The Boys are fighting Vought more than they're fighting the supes," said Ashmore. "And obviously Butcher has it out for Homelander for a very specific, personal reason, but the rest of the team is fighting the system more than they're fighting the supes. And I think as we're seeing this season so far, aside from characters like Stormfront and Homelander, the other supes are flawed and trying to make amends and in a free-fall, everybody from A-Train to The Deep and Queen Maeve. We're all seeing the other sides to these characters."
Ashmore continued, "And so I think that this will open the door a little more, potentially, for The Boys to see the other side of their enemy. Whether that means they're going to stop fighting them or not, I don't think that that's true, but I think it will give a bit of insight into what these people - the supes - were put through to become who they are and what they've become."
For more on the series, check out IGN's review of The Boys: Season 2, Episode 6, and find out about the series' superhero college-themed spinoff.
