[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the first two episodes of Superman & Lois‘ fourth and final season, “The End & the Beginning” and “A World Without.”]
Not only does Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) die brutally on The CW drama in the first episode of its final season, but how can the Kent family even grieve with Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) in Smallville and planning to stay?
Clark’s battle with Doomsday has a heartbreaking end, but that’s not the only big moment from Superman & Lois‘ two-episode premiere. Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch), while grieving for her husband, is forced by Lex to choose which son to save, Jordan (Alex Garfin) or Jon (Michael Bishop); she does pick (we don’t know which one) but fortunately, both are okay. Plus, Lex is looking for his daughter, Elizabeth (who, thanks to a photo on his board, we know will be played by Elizabeth Henstridge).
Below, showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher discuss pulling from an iconic comic arc and killing off Superman, bringing him back, Lex, and more.
Superman’s death is in the comics, but talk about kicking off the final season with that the way that you did.
Todd Helbing: 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, 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. 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.
Colin Bentley/The CW
This allows you to tell the story of how Lois and the boys deal and move forward, which we start seeing in Episode 2. What are we going to see there next? Can they stay together in their grief or will it divide them?
Brent Fletcher: I think a little of both. I think because it’s three people, that’s kind of a great thing for drama. I think two of them will stay together, and then I think obviously with Jordan, he kind of becomes the outlier in that everybody has the right intention but maybe not the right course of action and everybody’s struggling with it. We aren’t always our best selves in those moments. So we felt like that was a good dynamic to have with the family. But it’s the Kent family and even at their worst, they’re always there for each other. I mean that’s one of the things about the show, it’s uplifting. So we felt like that was going to be nice to play—the drama of people suffering, people making bad decisions but still having each other’s backs is kind of the fuel our show runs on.
What can you say about the journey to bring Clark back?
Fletcher: 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. 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.
There’s also the threat of Lex in Smallville, especially now that he knows who Jordan is. What can you say about Lex’s plans and how Lois is going to handle having him around? She has to think not just about herself, but about her kids.
Helbing: I think Lex systematically was trying to get away or get rid of all the protection around Lois and then go after her and make her sort of pay for the 17 years that he lost in prison. And so once he figures out who Jordan is, he’s just got another chess piece to get off the board. And the thing about Lex is he has this sort of code that he follows, and it’s not necessarily the right code, but it’s right for him and for what he thinks is justice, and Jordan becomes a part of that justice. Just because he’s a kid doesn’t mean that he’s going to take it any easier on him than anybody else, so it gets a little scary for Jordan sometimes in this season.
RelatedMichael Cudlitz Explains Why Lex Luthor Hates ‘Superman & Lois’
Lois was forced to make a heartbreaking choice with that phone call. How is that split-second decision going to come into play going forward? How is she handling that?
Fletcher: Yeah, I mean we did that intentionally because I can’t remember in what episode she gives her explanation of that, but it still hurts not to be chosen. Those are the things in life that stick with you. And we felt like that was a good thing to dramatize and to let that affect their relationship. To let one kid feel less than the other kid is something that brothers and any siblings feel and to put it in a heightened superhero sort of engine we thought was really exciting. And that call of “choose one or the other” is such a fun device. So yeah, we play with that continuously for a little while until it kind of comes to a resolution further down the line.
Lex is looking for his daughter, he knows Sam (Dylan Walsh) knows where she is, and after seeing those photos he has up, when are we going to see Elizabeth Henstridge on screen and what can you say about what’s coming up there?
Helbing: You’re going to see her pretty soon. I don’t know if I want to tell you exactly what episode, but sooner rather than later. I think Elizabeth really is going to give the audience a window into who Lex really is as a person, as a father, as a husband. And I just think you’re going to understand where Lex is coming from a little bit more after you see the relationship.
You also have Lana (Emmanuelle Chriqui) grappling with pushing back against Lex and the danger that would put her family in.
Fletcher: Yeah, we love that. We talked about each character’s journey and how to give them a fitting end, and we felt that was a really good path to start her on. To have Lana, the mayor of Smallville, somebody who protects Smallville, and now all of a sudden this evil influence has come into their town, and to put them into conflict we felt like would be a really good story engine and that we could do some things that maybe would be surprising. It’s not done. It starts early in the season, but there’s more ahead, and I think it’s pretty dramatic. And Lana’s got her hands full, I’ll say that.
Superman & Lois, Mondays, 8/7c, The CW
More Headlines:
‘Superman & Lois’ Bosses Break Down [Spoiler]’s Death, Lex’s Daughter, and More‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Aftershow: Natacha Karam on 126’s New Lieutenant, Marjan & Joe’s Future, and More (VIDEO)‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Debate Ken Jennings’ ‘Bad’ Call & Confusing Final Jeopardy! ClueEd Wheeler Dies: ‘Blue Bloods’ and ‘Law & Order’ Actor Was 88‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 33 Breaks Series Voting Record for Single Episode
