Superman & Lois showrunners say season 3 is “as big as we’ve ever gone”

After nearly a year-long wait, Superman & Lois is back with its third season. Other than The Flash, which is currently in its final season, Superman & Lois is the only legacy DCTV show still standing on The CW, although there is a newcomer in Gotham Knights.

I’m going to take a gamble and say that this will be Superman & Lois’ final season. I get that feeling after hearing what showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher had to say in their interview with Entertainment Weekly.

There is “a lot happening” in Superman & Lois’ third season

Fletcher shared that the third season will be quite a whirlwind and include some of the biggest, craziest stuff they’ve done so far. “It’s built differently than our other seasons. We have these two different villains, and Lex Luthor doesn’t show up where you’d expect him — it sneaks up on you. There’s a lot happening, especially at the end of a lot of episodes, and we’re filming a finale that is our biggest by far. When the third season ends, it’s as big as we’ve ever gone.”

Superman & Lois season 3 will also have to follow up on the big changes at the end of season 2. In case you forgot, in the season 2 finale, it was revealed that the series does not take place on the same Earth as the Arrowverse. This has major implications moving forward, according to Helbing. “It frees up some villains in a way that we couldn’t [use] before, one of those is Lex Luthor who is coming to the show [played by Michael Cudlitz],” he said. “We love Jon Cryer, we think his work on Supergirl was amazing. But we wanted to do our own stamp [on that character]. It allows us to get some of the villains that we probably would’ve stayed away from, to see if we can get the permission to use them now. I’m excited for everybody to finally meet Lex.”

I am so pumped for Cudlitz to play Lex Luthor. He was amazing as Abraham on The Walking Dead. Trust me on this, it’s going to be epic.

According to Fletcher, this version of Lex Luthor differs from any live-action version we’ve seen thus far. “It’s a slow burn before Lex shows up, so it’s earned, but his whole point of view in the world is different. His demeanor, his tone is different, and he is going to be the greatest oppositional force to Superman and Lois that they’re ever going to face. When we talked to Michael about it, he was really excited about the take, and we just knew that was who we wanted standing toe-to-toe with those two.”

How will Superman & Lois handle the replacement of Jordan Elsass?

Helbing also talked about the departure of Jordan Elsass, who played Jonathan Kent. The character will now be played by Michael Bishop. “It’s just an unfortunate circumstance that we all found ourselves in,” Helbing said. “David Rappaport is an amazing casting agent and gave us a lot of choices quickly, but Michael, from the beginning, he just had that essence where you’re like, ‘Wow, he really understands who Jon Kent is.'”

"When we cast him, he was thrown in this wild circumstance — he had just flown from Australia, had a test, got the job, and had a bag of clothes, and that’s it. We had a lot of discussions where we basically sat him down and gave him what our interpretation was, but gave him the room to develop it himself."

Helbing wouldn’t say if the show will acknowledge the recasting directly, but it sounds more like Bishop will just be there without comment from the other characters. “We just wanted it to feel organic and not to hit the audience over the head with, ‘This is a new actor playing the role.’ It’s more of like, ‘This is somebody that you should feel familiar with very quickly,’ and we think that you will.”

Get ready for the season 3 premiere of Superman & Lois tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST on The CW.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime, and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels