Superman Is The Corpse Of The Matter In Final 'Superman & Lois' Season Trailer
The fatality of Superman’s battle against Doomsday is coming ever closer as the October 7 fourth and final season premiere of Superman & Lois approaches. We’ve seen the before, we’ve seen some of the effects on the people after, but this latest and presumed final trailer stops dancing around the Man of Steel’s defeated husk and shows it straight on as a harrowing sight to behold for the CW.
The trailer opens with Lex Luthor, played by Michael Cudlitz expressing utter disdain for the small Midwest town life that Smallville embodies. Lex doesn’t believe it’s an authentic presentation. There’s a glimpse of the bliss for Kyle and Chrissy, played once again by Erik Valdez and Sofia Hasmik. Superman (Tyler Hoechlin)’s lifeless body lays in the street, Lois (Bitsie Tulloch) slowly approaching as their boys Jordan (Alex Garfin) and Jonathan (Michael Bishop) looks on. Lois defiantly tells Lex she’s not scared of him, while feeling bad that the boys don’t have their father. She gasps when turning over her husband’s body to lay back. John Henry Irons (Wolé Parks) remarks the world is without its protector, and Jordan’s accelerating vigilantism in confronting Lex teased in previous trailers is very much showcased. The remaining Kents are seen in the Fortress placing Clark in…something of a puddle. Lex is seen with Amanda McCoy, played by Yvonne Chapman as she questions his desire to suit up and destroy what might be Smallville out of revenge, but he flies off anyway. Action, screaming and pain it’s all there. At the Fortress, a Lara hologram reveals that Clark left something for his family that may very well be the key to saving him.
The Death of Superman inspiration has been worn on the show’s sleeve and is nothing close to a secret. Showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher reveal that they had always planned to adapt the Death of Superman story in season 4, whether it ended up being the end of the series or not. "When season 4 was announced to be the final season, it was like, 'Okay, we can really lean into Doomsday, we can do our own version of the Death of Superman,'" Helbing says. "It all worked out oddly in a really nice way. It's just sad that it had to be the last season."
The showrunners tout 10 emotionally-packed episodes full of surprises in their “best season yet”. "When you see the thing in its totality, the whole thing, the Death of Superman, it's important and poignant," Fletcher says. "And it turns out it's a great send off for our hero and our family and these iconic characters that you care about." Helbing adds that the arc could only be done so meaningfully thanks to multiple seasons of buildup. "The reason why that storyline in the comics worked so well is it had the benefit of having years and years and years and years of Superman stories, so it was impactful," he explains. "We had the benefit of having 43 episodes of seeing Clark Kent and Lois Lane and his family and his community and all these characters, so you really got to fall in love with them. It has an impact that it might not have if you did that in a movie and you didn't have 10, 15, 20 hours of a history with that character." Seems like a stark contrast to the DCEU’s attempt that occurred after approximately an eighth of the total minutes.
As for doing the deed of killing Superman, the showrunners indulged in the challenge of writing themselves "into a corner" only to figure out how to get out of it, especially seeing as Hoechlin remains a series regular. The series star being lugged around as a corpse was never going to be the crux of the entire final season. "That excited us as we talked about that and then we came up with the ideas that we found to be really interesting," Fletcher adds. "Most of them deviate from the comic. This is our version of it, and it incorporates every character and the themes of the show in it. We felt we had a really good take on it that would be impactful, emotional, and surprising. From episode to episode, there are a lot of big surprises in it that are thrilling as an audience member, but there's also big emotion."
With eight episodes remaining following the full-night season premiere on October 7, during which it will see Wranglers as its partner in the 9 PM timeslot, the Superman & Lois series finale is expected to air on December 2, bar any breaks, subsequent two-episode nights, or surprise related retrospective specials.
Source: Entertainment Weekly