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On December 2, 2024 the CW aired the Superman and Lois series finale, which marked the end of a long journey for Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch. Tyler Hoechlin had been playing Superman since his guest spot on Supergirl in 2016. The world met Bitsie Tulloch’s Lois Lane in a 2018 episode of The Flash which served as the first chapter to the Elseworlds crossover. Who could have imagined that those two guest roles would lead to 4 seasons of Superman and Lois.

It turns out, WB and the CW had an idea. It just depends on who you ask.

During a spotlight panel at Fan Expo San Francisco 2024, Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch spoke about the original plans Warner Bros. Television and the CW had for their characters. According to Tyler, he was only supposed to play Superman for two episodes during Supergirl season 2.

“This was something that just kind of kept adding on and adding on,” Tyler recalled. “I was only supposed to do two episodes, the first two episodes of that season. They called back a few months later and were like, ‘Hey, would you want to come back and do the final two episodes of this season,’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ Then it was like, ‘Hey, we want to bring you back for the crossovers if you want to, but just so you know, it’s the last time they’re saying I can use you as a character. I might even kill you.’ I said, ‘Yeah, do what you got to do man. It’s fine. It was supposed to be two episodes. It’s going to be seven now. Great.’ It just kind of kept developing from there. Definitely not the original plan.”

This would’ve been Elseworlds, the 2018 crossover that ran through Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. While Tyler’s Superman was featured in the crossover, he wasn’t killed off. The television event also introduced Bitsie Tulloch as Lois Lane. According to Bitsie, she was given a different story than Tyler.

“The other thing that was weird, because he was kind of told that he might get killed off, and I had been told on the DL from the get-go when I was cast in 2018, that if fans like you and Tyler together, and I had never met him, so kudos to David Rapaport, our casting director, who is phenomenal, for casting us both without even a chemistry read,” Bitsie said.

“I had been told, ‘If the fans really like you two together, I have a good feeling that you’ll get your own show.’ We were told very different things,” Bitsie continued. The rest is history. Bitsie and Tyler returned a year later for the Crisis on Infinite Earths television crossover, which springboarded into them getting their own spinoff, Superman and Lois. While their 2021 show was retroactively set in another continuity, their appearances on the Arrowverse shows set the stage for the two actors headlining the series.

If you’ve seen the series finale of Superman and Lois, then you know it ends with Superman dying. In a way, this means the CW went through with their original plan…it just took them a bit longer to get around to it. Thank goodness they held off, because it gave us 4 wonderful seasons of Superman and Lois.

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