Superman and Lois Lane are getting their own Arrowverse show! Deadline reports that the CW has ordered a Superman & Lois spin-off as the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline wraps up.
Here’s the official synopsis, from Deadline:
SUPERMAN & LOIS stars Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch as the world’s most famous Super Hero and comic books’ most famous journalist as they deal with all the stress, pressures and complexities that come with being working parents in today’s society. Both Hoechlin and Tulloch have already appeared as these iconic characters in multiple episodes of The CW’s DC Super Hero series, including this season’s Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover event, which concludes tonight.
According to the outlet, The Flash‘s Todd Helbing will serve as executive producer alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Geoff Johns. There’s no word yet on other cast and crew members, plot details, a release date, or other Arrowverse characters who might be showing up in the series.
Superman & Lois is one of two post-Crisis attempts to fill the Arrow-shaped void as the Arrowverse’s flagship show wraps up its final season. The other is a backdoor pilot airing next week as an episode of Arrow. If successful, SyFy Wire reports, it would become a spin-off series revolving around Mia Smoak/Queen (Katherine McNamara), the future daughter of Oliver and Felicity, as well as Canaries Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy.)
According to last night’s episode of “Crisis,” Clark and Lois have TWO boys, not one. A trade article I just read about the CW’s programming said that this instant order of a “Clark and Lois” series is bad news for the new ARROW spin-off with Mia because the slots for next year are all but filled. The backdoor pilot for the new ARROW series had better blow the fans away if it wants a slot.
@1 – The CW backdoor pilots don’t have a good history. It was done twice for Supernatural and both shows were passed over.
@2:
Yeah, but this exists in a whole universe of shows already. They’ve already proven that enough of the fan base will follow from show to show. So the question isn’t “do backdoor pilots work,” it’s “is there room on the networks docket?”
I don’t see how they can add two show when they already have five (or is it six?) and are only losing one. But who knows.
@2/Austin: The Arrow 2-parter that was a backdoor pilot for The Flash proved quite successful. So as far as the Arrowverse is concerned, we’re at 100 percent for backdoor pilots, though with a minimal sample size. (Legends of Tomorrow was already ordered before the crossover episodes that set it up, so those weren’t a backdoor pilot. And Supergirl and Batwoman — and of course Arrow — had straight-up regular pilots.)
@2 The first backdoor pilot for SUPERNATURAL was a stupid premise done poorly which the fans hated so that wasn’t a surprise failure. The second with Jodie, the girls, and the alternate world’s monsters was nicely done and most of the fans were very happy with it. The only reason I can think why it wasn’t picked up was that CW must really hate the SUPERNATURAL production people and Warner wanted too much of the financial pie.
At most, it can be suggested that Superman and Lois is a spin-off of Supergirl, which never existed as a spin-off or had any relationship to what you and others insist on incorrectly calling the Arrowverse, save for the fact that it had the same production company behind it. Does that mean that all those CSI shows were spin-offs of CSI Vegasverse or that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyer’s late night shows are spin-offs of the SNLverse?
If you insist on using something, why not Berlantiverse or DCW? Both are far more accurate.
That said, #2, #3 – it looks like with Arrow this year and previous years for other things, that the better solution, particularly cost wise, would be to go to the Netflix model and only do 10-12 episodes per series. We don’t need them to be year long and the ratings aren’t supporting that, nor will sales to streaming really continue to support that.
@6/_FDS: Uhh, its own creators call it the Arrowverse. Its wiki is named the Arrowverse Wiki. The term has been in regular, official use for the past five years and is universally used by every media news site these days, by Wikipedia, by the DC Database wiki, etc.
I’m cautiously optimistic about this.
Hochlein and Tulloch’s recurring appearances as Clark and Lois on Supergirl have been pleasant surprises. Showing them not only married, but raising a family allows this spinoff to venture into territory no other Superman adaptations (Lois and Clark and Superman Returns in particular) have ever really explored. The spinoff’s very premise also means it’ll be drawing influence from Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason’s recent, beloved Superman run.
Heh, release the Super Sons!
On the other hand, I’m still sick of Superman adaptations at this point. Granted, I felt the same way about Supergirl when it premiered back in 2015. Yet I gave it a chance (and I’m glad I did), so I’ll do the same here. But I just would’ve preferred this debut once Supergirl concludes its run rather than concurrently.
Incidentally, I’m almost certain Season Six will be it for Supergirl. I wouldn’t be surprised if Melissa Benoist is ready to move on after half a decade of playing Kara (likewise, I’m gonna be very surprised if Grant Gustin renews his contract for The Flash after Season Seven).
@8/Mr. Magic: If Gustin left, The Flash could continue with Keiynan Lonsdale in the lead if he were willing — Wally West inheriting the mantle from Barry Allen would seem appropriate. Or if he weren’t, they could bring in Bart Allen through time travel — or maybe even a new-timeline version of Nora. Heck, the Flash is one of the original legacy superheroes, so it would be fitting to continue the show with a different lead.
Although I wouldn’t mind if they instead replaced it with an Elongated Man spinoff. I think Ralph could carry his own show, although it kind of depends on whether the actress they cast as Sue turns out to be leading lady material. Hey, if Supergirl ends too, maybe Ralph and J’onn could team up in a superhero detective agency. They were Justice League Detroit teammates in the comics (along with fellow Arrowverse characters Vixen, Vibe, Gypsy, and Steel, plus Aquaman and Zatanna).
@9, Oh yeah, that’s a good point about Wally taking on the mantle if Lonsdale’s game. I didn’t think about that…and, heh, I should’ve since Wally was my generation’s Flash. And it’d give them a built-in means of continuing on without Gustin.
As much as I want to see the Fastest Motormouth Alive appear, though, I’m unsure how they’d do Bart now after Season Five. They’d just be re-treading narrative ground they already covered with Nora.
And I agree we’ll see a new version of Nora eventually. The aftermath of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” gives them the perfect opening.
But I’m very curious what’s gonna happen with the Arrowverse by this time next year when we get to the 2021-2022 Season renewals/cancellations.
As I said, it’s 50/50 whether Gustin and Benoist move on. With Black Lightning and Legends of Tomorrow, they’ve been struggling with their ratings (the former especially). Legends, as I understand, also has the highest budget of the spinoffs. There’s a chance it might get a stay of execution, but I unfortunately expect Black Lightning will end with Season Four.
As for Batwoman, theoretically it will be safe in a year. Despite its own ratings problems, it’s still the highest-rated of the spinoffs after Flash. A lot will depend on how the remainder of Season One does and how much Season Two benefits from that post-Crisis learning curve (not unlike how Legends rebounded and reinvented itself after its own inaugural Season).
@10/Mr. Magic: I hadn’t heard that Black Lightning‘s ratings were down. That might explain why they folded his world into Earth-Prime, to try to draw in more of the Arrowverse audience — and to allow them to continue using the character if the show ends. (Maybe on Superman & Lois, since Black Lightning originally operated out of Metropolis in the comics, which is why he and Superman shared Inspector Henderson as a supporting character.)
@12, Yeah, that was also my assumption as to why Jefferson’s Earth got folded into Earth-Prime during “Crisis”.
The thing is, I’m not sure how mileage they’re gonna get out of Jefferson being in the Arrowverse, or at least within the context of Jefferson’s own series.
Black Lightning is the odd duck out of the Berlanti shows since it’s shot in Atlanta rather than Vancouver. And Marc Guggenheim’s discussed how much of a logistical headache it was to get Cress Williams and the costume up to Canada during the filming of “Crisis”.
@12/Mr. Magic: Yes, and so far BL is hardly affected by the Crisis. The other shows either spent their first half-seasons directly setting up Crisis or wrapped up their initial arcs in time to leave a gap for Crisis before picking up with a changed status quo, but BL just sort of shoved Crisis into the middle of its ongoing story, spent a few minutes doing bookkeeping afterward, and then plunged right back into its ongoing arc as if nothing had happened.
Really, though, it was established way back in season 1 of BL that it took place on a world that did have other superheroes elsewhere in the country, though it was left vague which heroes those were (and Supergirl and Vixen were implied to be fictional characters there). So it doesn’t necessarily change that much about the world the show occupies.
@13, Right.
I wonder if they’ll try to do more connective tissue next Season once the show has more time to give thought to integrating itself into larger, ongoing events. But for now, I’m fine with it being the Supergirl of the post-Crisis Arrowverse (i.e. the most disconnected).
Actually, since you mentioned Henderson being a shared character between Clark and Jefferson’s monthy titles at the time, I wonder if that might be why Damon Gupton is really leaving Black Lightning.
I doubt it, though. If Superman and Lois is going to use an MPD character, it’s more likely to be Turpin or Maggie Sawyer.
Incidentally, Superman and Lois getting green-lit at all is interesting. It would seem to confirm that article from before last Christmas — that WB doesn’t know what to do with Superman and that the cinematic branch of the franchise is being abandoned for the immediate future in the wake of Justice League‘s failure and Cavill’s departure.
@14/Mr Magic: Yeah, I wondered if they might be moving Henderson over to Superman & Lois.
As for Maggie Sawyer, I think the reason she and Alex broke up on Supergirl was because Floriana Lima decided to leave the show and do other things (including a regular role in The Punisher season 2, which was a step down if you ask me). So I don’t know if she’d want to come back to the Arrowverse. Turpin’s still up for grabs, though.
@16…Whoops. Heh, when I wrote @14, I’d genuinely forgotten about Maggie’s role in Seasons Two and Three of Supergirl.
(In my defense, heh, it’s been a couple of Seasons).
As for the departure, Lima actually stated Maggie’s presence in the show was only ever intended for a single Season. I wish she’d stayed longer too, but it is what it is.
So anyway, yeah, Turpin makes the most sense if Gupton’s not being carried over to Superman and Lois. I notice he hasn’t really been used much in either the comics or the multimedia in the last 20 years and I’d love to see Terrible back in action.