Warning! The Following Contains SPOILERS from Superman & Lois Season 4.
A world without the Man of Steel has begun. The brutal death of Kal-El/Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) at the hands of Doomsday was how the swan song for Superman & Lois kicked off last week during Season 4’s anxiously anticipated two-episode premiere. And now co-showrunner Todd Helbing is addressing the stunning, emotional and quite literal “heart-ripping” death of Superman during an interview with TV Insider:
“We had kicked around that idea a while ago, and then we knew when we were setting up the end of Season 3 that we were going to do it. And I think it got cemented when we knew that we had 10 episodes left. It felt like the right story to tell. Like always, we sort of get inspiration from the comics and these iconic runs, and we just wanted to put our Superman & Lois little spin on it. We have the advantage of having 43 hours of people becoming invested in our characters…”
It’s been over 30 years since the editorial teams behind the four titles (Superman: Man of Steel, Adventures of Superman, Superman, Action Comics), which were dedicated to telling the Last Son of Krypton’s story in the early 1990s, decided to kill off the beloved Kryptonian within the splash pages of Superman No. 75 (1992). “So, we felt like we could do the storyline justice and also tell it in a fresh new way and make it as emotionally impactful as possible,” Helbing continued by saying of the character’s reimagined death on The CW during the same interview:
“There’s a lot of freedom when you know that it’s the last season. So, our philosophy going into it was just to cram as much story and have as many twists and turns and emotional punches as we can for the last season and hopefully pay back the fans for sticking with us for this whole time.”
How Will Superman Return to Life?
Superman & Lois’ final episodes have certainly lived up to the “fu*king awesome” hype so far from The CW’s President of Entertainment, Brad Schwartz. But now that Doomsday has killed Kal-El (Hoechlin), the focus becomes how does Superman return? For the moment, Lois (Bitsie Tulloch), Jordan (Alex Garfin) and Jon (Michael Bishop) can only interact with the hologram left behind by the family’s patriarch at the Fortress of Solitude following the Man of Steel’s demise. So, how will he come back to life? Well, co-showrunner Brent Fletcher touched on Superman’s return during the same interview, but he carefully avoided any juicy spoilers. Fletcher told TV Insider:
“We talked about it a lot. If we decide to do something like that, it’s like, how long do you leave him dead for, where it doesn’t — where you want to earn everything. If we kill him, we want to feel it and make it earned and not just have him come back willy-nilly. So, it was like, if we’re going to do this, we’ve got to be with the family a while so that they can feel it. And if he comes back, if we’re going to bring him back, the means in which he comes back to the family and to Earth need to be elaborate and emotional and feel like it was earned to bring him back.”
In the comic books, The Reign of the Supermen storyline follows on the heels of the Funeral for a Friend and Death of Superman issues. And during that time, four pretenders (Steel, Superboy, the Eradicator and Cyborg Superman) took up the Last Son of Krypton’s mantle to try and help Metropolis overcome the loss of its greatest protector. Today, though, it’s unclear whether Superman & Lois will reflect any of these elements in the true Kal-El’s return to The CW. However, Fletcher continued by saying of their own interpretation of the character’s eventual homecoming during the same interview:
“Those are the big conversations you have because at the end of the day, you don’t want it to feel like somebody just did a magic spell and poof, he’s back. You want it to be earned. If you made a big move, you should always be considering the consequences of that and never take shortcuts. So, we tried really hard not to take shortcuts in the killing of him and in the bringing of him back.”
Related
Why Superman & Lois Is the Best Modern Version of Superman
While Warner Bros. has struggled with the Man of Steel on the big screen, Superman & Lois is the best version of the hero since Christopher Reeve.
And as if Kal-El’s death and Doomsday’s presence weren’t enough, the threat of Brainiac’s arrival on The CW series is just one more enticing reason for fans to tune in for the show’s epic swan song. Watch new episodes of Superman & Lois on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET and stream for free on The CW’s app and website the following day.
Based on the characters from DC Comics, Superman & Lois follows Clark Kent and Lois Lane, attempting to live a quiet life in Smallville with their twin sons Jonathan and Jordan. Unfortunately for the couple, their lives continue to be effected by Clark’s superhero identity and powers. Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch star as Clark and Lois, with Jordan Elsass and Alex Garfin portraying the couple’s sons.
- Release Date
- February 23, 2021
- Network
- The CW