Superman Is Deader Than The CW In This Superman And Lois Trailer

It’s a pity about Superman And Lois, which started with such promise, yet had to launch at the tail end of The CW‘s relevance. Once a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros, both parties have mostly abandoned the network (though they still own minority stock) and given it to a nationwide affiliate owner who plans to make whatever cheap buck they can on boring stuff.

By all rights, Superman And Lois should have only lasted three seasons, yet it’s getting a miraculous fourth one. How’d they pull it off? By shaving the budget to the point that only the actors playing Superman’s family are still on the regular payroll. But we didn’t expect them to go THIS far: they fired Superman! There’s no Superman on this Superman show anymore! He’s DEAD!

No kidding, folks….see for yourself. The 90-second trailer for Superman And Lois Season Four, which WB released today, is mostly a dour, shadow-filled gloomfest of Lois and the boys crying and mourning. Supes never shows up at any point, not even for a tease. I guess this is one way to shave some money off the special effects budget.

Superman has, of course, “died” so many times that no one will really believe he’s gone for good, in any continuity, no matter how seriously they treat it here. And no matter how they spin it, Tyler Hoechlin is still on the payroll, so he’s gotta show up at some point. It WOULD be an interesting twist if he stayed dead though, and his family had to figure out how to defeat Lex Luthor and Doomsday without him.

Superman And Lois was announced to be ending last November. “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,” CW president Brad Schwartz said at the time. “As Superman embarks on his final flight, the team is leaving us with an absolutely epic 10-episode must-watch-every-minute farewell to one of the most legendary CW families ever.”

Super-fans have mostly moved on to My Adventures With Superman on Adult Swim, which is comparatively less heavy than this was. It is Bitsie Tulloch’s Lois we will miss the most….she delivered a grand performance as the character. Superman And Lois returns to broadcast one last time October 17 on The CW.