Superman and Lois will return to Smallville, introduce a new suit, and more

The Superman & Lois panel at DC FanDome gave fans an idea of what domestic life is like as the Man of Steel and the world’s most famous reporter.

It’s been over a decade since Superman headlined his own show on television, but Superman & Lois is about to change that. While the series is unable to premiere this fall as originally planned, the key themes for the series have already been laid out.

The spin-off stars Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent / Superman and Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane, who reprise their roles from Supergirl. At the panel, they were joined by showrunner Todd Helbing and former DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee to reveal more about the newest The CWVerse/ Arrowverse show.

One of the announcements made was that Superman will be getting a new suit for the show. Helbing mentioned that the suit Hoechlin has been seen wearing in episodes of Supergirl and across the crossovers wasn’t created to be sustained over an entire series, so that’s one of the reasons to change it to a ‘badass Superman suit’.

Superman & Lois takes place in Smallville.

We’ve known for a while that Superman & Lois is going to be different from other superhero properties. The show will focus on these DC Comics stalwarts navigating married life as working parents of twin teenage boys.

In the comics, Superman and Lois are proud parents to Jon Kent, but for the purpose of the show, Jon has a twin brother named Jordan, and the boys have ‘different skill sets’. Considering Tulloch has a 17-month-old child, it’s a bit of a stretch of the imagination that the two young characters would have teenage children, but Helbing explained it away by suggesting Superman doesn’t age like the rest of us.

It’s evident that Helbing is leveraging his personal experiences for the show, which is why Superman & Lois takes place in small-town Smallville, rather than Superman’s usual habitat of the cosmopolitan Metropolis.

The couple moves their family to Smallville after ‘a tragic event’, which makes them want to lead a less hectic life. It’s not clear whether the Daily Planet has a branch office in the town, or Lois is acting as a reporter-at-large for the publisher, but we can’t imagine either of these characters’ lives not being hectic.

Helbing reiterated several times that the show focuses not only on Superman’s stressful job as a superhero but also on Lois’ job as a hero of truth. The two characters will be working as a team to save the day.

One can hope Superman & Lois presents these aspects of Lois’ life more organically than fellow Arrowverse show The Flash has in the past. Iris West-Allen has only recently been allowed to flourish as a reporter in her own right.

Superman & Lois is a domestic drama.

Tulloch has read two scripts and she finds the story of the sons ‘compelling’. It seems that the show will be delving into the parental guilt many working couples feel because work might be taking them away from being with their children. The storyline sounds intriguing, but the execution is key. There’s a fine line between realism and melodrama; can Superman & Lois find the balance?

For Superman, he’s faced with the difficult challenge of choosing when to ‘turn it off’. He’s always needed, so Hoechlin will be exploring how his character makes the decision to be with his family over being a hero to the world.

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Other domestic drama will include Clark reuniting with his first love, Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui). She is married and has a child, but her home life is anything but a happy one.

Helbing is looking to explore the love triangle dynamic that has been a significant part of Superman comics. But his approach is to investigate how these characters will handle these complex and latent feelings as mature adults.

Helbing did emphasize that Superman will not be cheating on Lois, though Tulloch believes that Lois shouldn’t know that. Superman and cheating do not go hand-in-hand, so here’s hoping the show writers always remember that.

And, to top it all, Lois and her father General Lane have a strained relationship because his military background makes him look on Superman as a soldier.

Superman & Lois sounds like a novel idea with its grounded look at modern family life. There will be plenty of action set pieces for fans to enjoy, but, if done correctly, this show could expand on how superhero properties reflect the real world we live in. Since the show is a spin-off of the Arrowverse’s boldest show—Supergirl—we wouldn’t expect anything less.

Superman & Lois is set to air on The CW in January 2021.

What do you think of the direction and approach for the characters on Superman & Lois? Let us know in the comments.