The Boys flawlessly welcomes its new villain to show, but who is Lamplighter?

Welcome to The Boys, Lamplighter. You probably won’t survive the experience.

You have to love the way Amazon’s The Boys promotes their show. Usually, it’s done with them cursing out heroes and a middle finger emoji and asking fans to give one in the comments.

This stays true to the temperature and adult content of the show. If you know and like The Boys, then you get it. If you’re new, then it lets you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Recently, The Boys Instagram page just welcomed a character from the comic books into the show in their normal creative way.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuY7oPJy8S/?igshid=ita52soa9f55

Considering the rumors that Shia LaBeouf may be sought after to play Iceman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s funny that Shawn Ashmore is announced as Lamplighter at the same time. After all, Ashmore was the first person to play Bobby “Iceman” Drake in a live action movie. Now, he’s going from a hero who protected the world, to a fake hero who only cares about himself.

Thankfully, Ashmore is a great actor. He should be able to do this role justice. Fair warning, like most of the super-powered beings in The Boys, Lamplighter is not a good person.

Who is Lamplighter?

In The Boys comic books, Lamplighter was one of the original Seven. He was joined by Homelander, Queen Maeve, Mr. Marathon, Jack from Jupiter (who we may have seen in an Instagram post), The Deep, and Black Noir. Like most of The Seven, he was a selfish jerk who met his demise after going too far. It’s doubtful that anyone who’s seen the show is shocked by this.

Lamplighter couldn’t understand that a truce between The Boys and The Seven was the right thing to do. So, instead of listening to Homelander, he killed some of Mallory’s family members. In order to keep the truce, Homelander offered Lamplighter as a peace offering. Mallory accepted and killed Lamplighter… or so we thought. Lamplighter came back to life with the brain functions of a toddler.

It’ll be interesting to see if and how Lamplighter’s story is changed in the TV series. We’ve seen that The Boys has adjusted some of the comic book content to fit the show. As much as this writer wishes they could stay exactly like the comics, it makes total sense. A good portion of the comic book is too vulgar and racy and it wouldn’t make for good TV. However, in this case, Lamplighter’s story could very well stay close to the source – if for nothing else to help with the origins of how The Boys know each other and why Mallory left the team.

A good career move for Shawn Ashmore

Shawn Ashmore has appeared in a lot of properties throughout his career, but he’s never played a real villain – at least not one like this. Ashmore has a chance to show even more range than we’ve seen in the past – and we’ve already seen  plenty.

Actors who play villains can often catapult themselves to a new level of stardom. Anthony Hopkins had a long career before Silence of the Lambs, but it’s that performance people remember the most. Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight is another example as he proved that he could do so much more than anyone was initially willing to believe.

With all that in mind, we could see Shawn Ashmore take his successful career to even greater heights with an incredible performance.

We may not know what role Lamplighter will play in Amazon’s The Boys just yet, but we can assume the worst. With the exception of Starlight, none of The Seven are good people. They’re egocentric characters who are obsessed with money and power. Would it be a nice twist if Lamplighter was actually a good person? Absolutely. Although, let’s be honest. What’s the likelihood of that happening?

What do you think? Are you excited to see Shawn Ashmore in another comic book role? Let us know in the comments below.