Saturday’s DC FanDome follow-up event featured a panel for the upcoming CW show Superman and Lois. Moderated by DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee, the Superman and Lois panel featured the show’s stars, Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch, as well as the show’s executive producer and showrunner Todd Helbing. Over the course of a nearly 30-minute chat, Hoechlin, Tulloch, and Helbing opened up about their new show and what fans can expect to see.
Henry Cavill isn’t the only actor who gets to wear a new suit while in Superman mode. Fans will no doubt be hyped to learn the Superman and Lois panel confirmed the show will introduce a new suit design. Sure, the panel saved the best tease for last but I’m gonna share it with you first! While Hoechlin was originally asked if Superman would get a new suit, he handed off the question to Helbing, who shared, “Originally you came on for the crossovers and that suit just wasn’t built to sustained a series. So, there’s going to be a really badass Superman suit that I’m pretty excited about.”
Image via The CW
In addition to the news that Superman and Lois will introduce a new suit design, some key plot details were also shared during the panel. The series will begin in the aftermath of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event as Clark and Lois return to Smallville and try to make a go of it with their two teenage sons. Although Helbing promised there will be “a lot of set pieces and a lot of heroics,” he also noted the show would focus on Clark and Lois “as a couple. We really get to lean into Clark and Lois not being Superman and the most famous journalist in the world, but really as parents. What is it that like when you have jobs like that?”
Helbing continued, teasing what’s in store with Clark and Lois’ twin sons: “We wanted to present two kids who had two completely different skill sets, and how do you deal with that as parents?”
There was also an explanation for why our titular couple was moving away from Metropolis in favor of small-town life. According to Helbing,
Image via The CW
“I’m not gonna give reason yet, but the story of Superman has taken place in Metropolis for very long—obviously there was the Smallville series—but I came from a small town in the Midwest, and the town that I grew up in had a business leave that sort of affected everyone in the town, and the town started to dry up, and it felt very current with recent years after 2008. So we wanted to tell the story of the parents, after this tragic event, move back to Smallville and really find that maybe it’s easier to raise kids maybe in a place where life isn’t as hectic as Metropolis.”
Helbing also teased how the return of Lana Lang (this time played by Emmanuelle Chriqui) would play out on the show. He began by stating, “I think its an interesting dynamic as an adult how you deal with that relationship,” before going on to say, “We don’t want Lois and Lana brawling, but that dynamic as an adult is really interesting to us. Those feelings are impossible to ignore and I think that’s a real thing for some people — especially when kids are involved. And then to see [Lana’s] husband and her kids, and that dynamic. There’s a couple of characters that we invented: Kyle Cushing [Erik b] and Sarah Cushing [Inde Navarrette], who gets sort of wrapped up with the boys and they have their own love triangle.”
Superman and Lois is coming to The CW in 2021. Get even more DC FanDome updates here.
Allie Gemmill is the Weekend Contributing Editor for Collider. You can follow them on Twitter @_matineeidle.
