The Boys Season 2 Showrunner Regrets SPOILER's Tragic Death

Now that Amazon has released nearly two full seasons of The Boys, it's apparent by now fans of the show shouldn't get all too attached to the characters involved in the production. While the series doesn't necessarily go to the lengths of say, something like HBO's Game of Thrones, it does exercise one subversion after another to keep fans on their toes. That much was evident with the second season's penultimate episode released on Friday as one major character met their unceremonious end when all was said and done.

Full disclosure: major spoilers up ahead! If you've yet to see the latest episode of The Boys, "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker," you may want to proceed with caution.

We're not kidding. Major spoilers incoming.

For the past two episodes, fans have been following along with The Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore), the character that left Vought's The Seven immediately prior to the first season, leaving room for Starlight to join the team. We found out the company reassigned him to Sage Grove, a facility where it tests out Compound V on unsuspecting inmates.

As you might expect, Lamplighter grows tired of it and briefly comes an associate member of The Boys in an attempt to get payback with the team that kicked him to the curb. Only, that's not really the case — rather, he started working with The Boys so that he had an excuse to get back into Vought Tower and while there, he set himself on fire in front of the statues of The Seven in the group's main meeting room.

As it turns out, Lamplighter's complete arc was written far in advance of the show actually casting Ashmore in the role. If the group could do it over, series showrunner Eric Kripke says, Lamplighter would likely still be alive due to the actor's success as the character.

"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 tells TVLine. "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."

The Boys Season Two finale will be added to Amazon on October 9th.

What have you thought of the show's second season so far? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter!