Titans season 4: Joshua Orpin on Superboy meeting Lex Luthor, Superman

Titans season 4 will finally delve into Superboy’s relationships with his fathers, Superman and Lex Luthor, something star Joshua Orpin couldn’t be more excited about. 

As fans of DC Comics know, Conner Kent aka Superboy’s relationships with his fathers Lex Luthor and Superman have always been a bit complicated. and also played a major role in shaping some of his comic book arcs.

While Lex and Superman have been referenced in Titans’ first three seasons, the show hasn’t yet been able to lean into the relationships fully Conner has with his two fathers quite as we’ve seen in the pages of the comics… until now.

The fourth season of the series is set to finally provide room for Conner to explore his relationships with his two fathers in a way we haven’t yet seen in the series.

Joshua Orpin teases Superboy’s relationships with Superman, Lex Luthor in Titans season 4

As teased at New York Comic Con and later in promotional materials released ahead of the Titans season 4 premiere, early into the new season Conner receives a letter from Superman as well as a direct invitation from Lex Luthor to meet in Metropolis. These events open the door for Conner to finally meet his parents for the first time.

"“One of the very exciting things about this season of Titans is that Conner is, in a very real sense, introduced to his parents for the very first time because up until this point, it’s been just hearsay. It’s been what other people have told him about Superman, what other people have told him about Lex, and he’s had to kind of coalesce those ideas into an interpretation of who his fathers are,” Orpin previewed.“And is this behavior more like what Superman would do? Or is this more what Lex would do? Should I be doing one or the other? Now he actually gets to really wrestle with those ideas in a real sense of meeting those people.”"

With the introduction of Superman and Lex Luthor, Titans season 4 will see Conner wrestling with his two sides and taking a deeper dive into that internal battle he often faces knowing where he comes from.

"“We get to kind of get right in there and really wrestle and deal and feel these things that that we’ve only kind of touched on in the past. We’ve scratched the surface, we’ve introduced these concepts, and we’ve kind of let them lie and now we’re going to see it. We’re gonna see what it means when Conner says something like, ‘You’re expecting my Lex side to take over,’ we’re going to see what that looks like,” Oprin teased.“We’re going to see Conner grapple with those choices, and really, actually, be faced with the hard choices. He has to decide who he is. There’s no longer some amorphous force that’s influencing him, you’ve got a person now, you’ve got Lex Luthor. He has to encounter him and deal with him as a very real threat.”"

While there is a lot to unpack with both relationships, the introduction of Superman — an introduction we still don’t quite know the specifics of — in particular, will play a key role for Conner as he finally gets the chance to connect with the figure he’s spent his whole life looking up to.

"“This is the guy that [Conner] has spent his whole, admittedly short, life looking up to. This is the guy that everybody has told him, he needs to be more like, this is the guy that everyone told him you need to live up to this legacy, this infallible superhero, that symbol of hope all around the world, you know, this is the ultimate superhero. You have to be like him. So where does that leave you?”“Case in point when Hawk dies. Superman wouldn’t have wrecked that day, Superman would have saved them. So you can think about what that does to a person when you have such a role model as Superman that you cannot live up to. So I guess in terms of what he’s searching for, and what he’s looking for is he wants reassurance that he’s on the right track. He wants guidance. Like all of us, he wants love.”"

Be sure to hit play on the video below for more Titans season 4 teasers from Joshua Orpin to learn more about the new season including some fun teases about Conner’s season 4 relationships and more!

Titans season 4 premieres Thursday, Nov. 3 on HBO Max with a special two-episode premiere event with new episodes releasing weekly every Thursday.

Are you excited to finally see Conner getting the chance to interact with his two fathers and to know that Titans season 4 will explore his relationships with Superman and Lex Luthor?