SUPERMAN & LOIS 

THINK YOU’VE SEEN EVERY POSSIBLE VERSION OF THE MAN OF STEEL? THINK AGAIN. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER TODD HELBING AND HIS STARS EXPLAIN WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT SUPERMAN & LOIS

WORDS: BRYAN C AIRNS

ABSOLUTELY NO superhero can match the impact of Superman. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Man of Steel first appeared in 1938’s Action Comics #1 and subsequently ushered in the superhero genre. Over the decades, this pop culture icon became a symbol of hope and justice. His image and S-shield proved to be merchandise gold too, gracing lunchboxes, bed sheets, apparel, mugs, action figures, colouring books and much more.

Then there’s the countless television shows, comic books and movies, each putting their own spin on his legacy. And therein lies the rub. Some would argue the Superman creative well has dried up, that it’s all been seen before. But leave it to uber-producer and Arrowverse gatekeeper Greg Berlanti to come up with a contemporary twist on the Big Blue Boy Scout’s canon for the new TV series Superman & Lois.

“My question initially was, ‘How do you do a Superman show that isn’t the same as has already been done?’” showrunner Todd Helbing tells SFX. “Not just on TV, but in features as well. Man Of Steel obviously shifted tones quite a bit, but it was all Superman in the same time period. Smallville had already done the teenage years. Greg Berlanti had an answer pretty quickly. He was like, ‘Well, let’s just do Superman and Lois married with kids.’”

Superman & Lois presents a unique situation for a new venture. These versions of the characters, portrayed by Teen Wolf’s Tyler Hoechlin and Grimm’s Elizabeth Tulloch, had already been established over numerous appearances in the Arrowverse, with the two most recently chipping in to defeat the Monitor during the epic Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover. So, in the early stages of the series’ development, Helbing pitched Hoechlin and Tulloch the pilot and season arc over dinner.

“It’s an interesting dynamic, because Tyler and Bitsie had already played these characters in a handful of episodes and had worked on their interpretations of the characters,”

Helbing says. “But when I explained to them what we were trying to do and the tonal shift, they got on board pretty quickly. There are subtle changes they make – not necessarily in performances, but in attitude. They knocked it out of the park in all the Arrowverse episodes that they were in, but we are really diving into their relationship. One of the analogues we use for this show is Friday Night Lights. Lois and Clark in our show are very much Tami and Coach Taylor.”