Superman & Lois‘ next season will be its last
The final extant CW superhero show will be hanging up its cape in 2024
Aux News Lois
It’s the end of yet another era at The CW today—where, it sometimes feels, more eras are ending than ever even bothered to begin in the first place—as the network announced today that the upcoming fourth season of superhero series Superman & Lois will be its last.
And while this doesn’t technically signal the full and final death of the old, fabled Arrowverse—since S&L was never actually part of Greg Berlanti’s decade-plus experiment in serialized superhero TV, despite Tyler Hoechlin playing Clark Kent for both franchises—it does appear to mark the end of superheroes at The CW. The network has been steadily shedding its capes-and-comics-based shows ever since it was acquired by Nexstar, and Superman & Lois—in which Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch played versions of the title duo, raising their sons in small-town Smallville—was the last to fall, having now finally slipped beneath the waves of unscripted programming, and also that Jesus show that re-premiered on the network earlier this year.
News of the show ending comes not long after Superman & Lois already got pummeled with some pretty serious hits: The show was already subjected to serious cost-cutting to get a fourth season order, with Warner Bros. Television moving several of its cast members from main cast to recurring to save cash. Then, in the midst of this summer’s strikes, the show saw similar reductions on its writing side, with its writers room shrunk from eight people down to five.
Despite all this, the series still got the “We don’t regret running this!” congratulatory notice from the network, with network exec Brad Schwartz writing that, “Over the last three seasons, Superman & Lois redefined both the superhero genre and family drama as Tyler, Elizabeth and the entire cast effortlessly portrayed these classic characters with new layers of depth and complexity that had never before been explored in the Superman universe.” Showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher fired back the “Nobody’s mad over here, either!” counter-statement, too, writing that, “We’d like to thank our partners at Berlanti Productions, DC, WB and The CW for their endless support and enthusiasm during this journey,” before teasing fans with the final, 10-episode season’s big threat: The increasing prominence of Michael Cudlitz as the series’ version of classic baddie Lex Luthor.
Superman & Lois’ final season will air some time in 2024.
13 Comments
I’m just posting here cause it’s the most recent article. Is anyone else’s Kinja more borked than normal? I got the little red dot but when I click notifications it says user not found.
I got it too.
same
Yeah, Kinja is totally broken now. Which I guess was the next step since most times either it won’t take me to whoever replied to me, or when I click “pending” it actually REMOVES more posts than it reveals.
Seems to be fixed now.
The increasing prominence of Michael Cudlitz as the series’ version of classic baddie Lex Luthor.Yes, but does he turn to supervillainy after losing his hair in an accident he blames on Supes?
Lame
I will spend the rest of my life searching for a way to access the earth where Legends Of Tomorrow and Doom Patrol ran for a full 10 fucking amazing seasons each and did several crossovers before bowing out on their own terms.I figure that will be easier than becoming a multi multi billionaire, buying WBD and correcting the horrible mistakes they’ve made.Oh wait, this story is about Superman & Louis getting the much expected axe? Eh, I never finished season 2. Once they brought Earth Prime Digg in only to then say “Oh yeah, nevermind about all that, we’re on a totally different earth, not Earth Prime, nope not one bit!” I kinda lost any remaining interest I had in ever going back.
I’ll allow it so long as WBD brings back Legends of Tomorrow for a real final season.
Once I saw that the show revolved around the whiny teenage brat offspring, I lost all interest in it. So it lasted this long…huh.
Somebody saaaaavvve me!
When did CW go from the network to go to for superhero shows to the network that seems ashamed that they ever had any superhero shows and wants to get rid of them ASAP and just pretend they never aired on their network?
When they got new owners.