‘Superman & Lois’ Showrunners on Bringing the Last CW Superhero Story to a Satisfying Close

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Superman & Lois‘ series finale, “It Went By So Fast.”]

Don’t be sad that  Superman & Lois is over. Be glad that it happened at all. Because this show flew into our lives and redefined one of the most iconic DC Comics couples ever, amid some unprecedented challenges. Firstly, it was the umpteenth Arrowverse-adjacent project to join the CW when superhero fatigue was just starting to set in. Secondly, it launched during Covid when productions were hobbled by safety protocols and limited promotional opportunities. Thirdly, it had the unenviable task of filling its lead roles with actors who could both embody these legends and appeal to a massive fandom packing big opinions.

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Yet S&L soared, primarily due to it easily clearing that third hurdle. By casting Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch as Smallville’s First Couple—and testing them out in the Arrowverse crossovers—the show instantly had a leg up. The two of them were perfect. Then (and nobody saw this coming) the creators of the series opted to upend the ongoing vibe of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and company by grounding the story as a homier, sepia-soaked family drama that was equal parts love letter to the characters and showcase for spectacle.

Fittingly, the series finale reflected that mash-up. The first half was devoted entirely to the unified fight to stop Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz). Supe, his sons (Michael Bishop and Alex Garfin), and Lois, they all came together along with John Henry Irons (Wolé Parks), fiancé Lana (Emmanuelle Chriqui), and daughter Natalie (Tayler Buck) to take down the baddie in a cinematic, effects-filled showdown. As the dust settled, the story shifted to a heartfelt coda as Clark recounted the rest of his life on Earth, one filled with love, loss, and some of the lore that we already knew, all played out in emotional vignettes. John and Lana wed. The Kents started a charity. The kids grew into legit heroes (one with a very familiar face!), started families of their own, and stood by their dad as Lois valiantly succumbed to cancer. Clark grew older, adopted a dog, and eventually, the very human heart he was carrying thanks to the late General Lane (Dylan Walsh) gave out.

As showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher had promised us, we got their take of the death of Superman. It was lovely and lovingly crafted. Here, the duo explain how they chose to end the show in this way, what they hope fans will take from the episode, and why the rest of the Arrowverse wasn’t needed for these heroes’ final journey.

The show’s always been tremendous, but it is so great that you tied up the Lex stuff with enough time to actually tell the family story, the rest of the human story. Because we know Superman lives beyond this point in his journey and we know that Lex has to go to jail. He has to. So how did you come up with what you wanted that final extended epilogue to be?

Todd Helbing: Well, Brett and I talked about this. We had a couple ideas. We talked about ending somewhere a little bit different, but at the end of Season 3, we started talking about stuff and once we found out it was the final season, Brent and I were fortunate enough that we had a couple of weeks before the rest of the writers joined. So we were able to just really dig in and hone in on the story we wanted to tell. And it felt like, because we knew that this was one of the rare opportunities to tell a whole Superman story, we wanted the ending to really have a meaning to it, so it would last with people and do something that other iterations weren’t able to do.

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I don’t think we’ve ever seen what you do here. This has never been done before, correct?

Helbing: No, you’re correct. I don’t think so. But once we got in the room, some stuff shimmied here or there, but we watched a lot of TV finales that we thought were great and really stuck the landing and got inspired by some. But I don’t know when it solidified. Brent, do you know when it solidified?

Brent Fletcher: It was pretty much right after the two weeks of me and you. We knew we liked the idea of “The Death of Superman” being the arc for the season and everybody thinking it was the first time he died this season. But it was actually the last one. We were pretty excited about that idea that you don’t really know what we’ve planned out until you’ve seen the last episode. And the other thing is that we always take a lot of pride that our Clark Kent is so relatable and is the most human version, we think. And to give him the final journey of seeing his life—and seeing his death—is something that every human being experiences. To go through that with him, we felt, was a really fascinating way to end that icon’s story. And so it felt really good. I think when we pitched it out at first in the room, everybody was concerned it was going to be too sad. They’re like, ‘It’s such a rough season!’ We heard it, but we also thought, ‘Yeah, but when you see what we do with it, it’s meant to be inspiring.’ Death is a fact of life, but what if you tell the story of life and what it’s worth? Doesn’t that sweeten the pot enough to make the ending? And then with the final version of it, with him seeing Lois, we just felt like that was sweet enough to take away some of the sad.

Because we know they’ll be together forever.

Helbing: Yes. Yeah, exactly.

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Are we to assume that while Clark is aging, the boys are off being Superman?

Helbing: Yes. Yeah, they have some help. Steel is a part of that for a while. There’s that one shot of all of them, and then at some point, he’s going to hang up the suit and pass it along to Nat fully. So it’d be the three of them. And yeah, they’re all saving the world together.

You honor the loss so many people endure with how Lois died, that cancer is always there. It’s always going to be that threat that, again, regardless of how heroic your loved ones are, it’s just that thing that they may not be able to beat.

Helbing: In the medical community, they stopped saying you’re “cured” from cancer, so when Lois got the news that she was done with treatment, it’s definitely in remission. But it just feels like more often than not, it’s a fact of life. It comes back and when you age, it’s a lot harder of a fight. So yeah, it just felt more realistic.

Fletcher: And I think with Bitsie, when we pitched it to her, she liked it, but she just wanted to make sure that we honored the truth of it. And that was our intent the whole time. Because it was a shortened season, we didn’t want to sugarcoat it, but again, it’s that yin and yang of happy-sad. So she got a lot of life after her first round and it was successful for a while, but it does come back sometimes too. And we felt like that was something important to remind the audience. Just in the big picture of it, this is a scary thing and it’s dangerous and cruel and you’ve got to fight it with hope, which is what the kids did.

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She’s also the only one in the family who doesn’t have powers. So the fact that she lives as long as she does with no powers, it’s such a testament to who Lois Lane is.

Fletcher: Exactly.

When did you realize that General Lane’s heart would actually be the heart of your finale?

Helbing: I mean, originally we talked about having Tal-Rho come back. We love Adam Rayner, he’s fantastic. It was just with the sort of restraints that we had, we weren’t able to do that then. But the second the light bulb went off that we could make it General Lane, it just felt like such a perfect sort of ribbon on their relationship. He was such a hard-ass at the beginning and you saw him soften up over the course of the show, fix his relationships and  really grow to love Clark, you know? So it just felt like the ultimate sacrifice. And at the end of the day, all of our characters in the show are heroes. They all fight for things they believe in and it just felt like that was the best way to honor that character.

It’s one of those reflections of Lois was General Lane’s heart…

Fletcher: Yes!

So he gave him Lois first and then literally gave him his heart.

Fletcher: And it’s sort of like Tetris, when you get a good story idea, sometimes the Tetris piece unlocks a whole bunch of rows for you and for us, it really unlocked the human thing for Superman in a way because of the heart. It made the stakes better. As a story engine, it was fantastic because it was real, emotional and grounded. If we’d have had seven seasons, we would’ve given a pause because we loved Dylan so much as that character. But with this, once we were in it and we knew it was endgame, it became pretty apparent that it was a right move.

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I did not expect to get as emotional at the wedding sequence. The flashbacks of Lana hit perfectly. She was pivotal to this family.

Helbing: No. Yeah, she’s a true friend since childhood and once they got there, I think those bits with John Henry and Lana, when they’re saying their vows and you flashback to who they are and speak to their character, they were both phenomenally important to the Kents.

I have to ask… David Giuntoli: as a grown-up Jon?!

Fletcher: [Laughs] Oh yeah!

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What was that like, with Bitsie and her husband and wife playing mother and son?!

Fletcher: I know they mentioned that a couple of times. [Laughs] We all loved it. Throughout the season, we tried to give a lot to the crew and to people close to us. It felt like such a homemade show. We really were lucky. And so David directed for us, we love him, that was a no-brainer. In Episode 407, when the Superman reveals himself to the news crew, that’s our crew. And then a lot of our kids were the grandkids in the finale. Our kids of us. Two of ’em are mine, and then Greg Smith has got some in there.

That blows my mind. There’s no way the kid from Everwood has children, much less is old enough to be a producer and director now. Like, he’s a full-grown adult now.

Helbing: And He looks exactly the same. The guy doesn’t age at all. [Laughs]

Was there a different ending that was ever considered? Was there another option?

Helbing: At one point, we had talked about the town protecting his secret as the thing, but we felt like once we had this idea and figured out how to tie it all together, we could do both. And 407 is one of our favorite episodes. So that really felt like the right place to do that.

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Was there any talk of using clips to bring in former Arrowverse people to send him off?

Helbing: I mean, there was talk of it, not to use clips, it’s just one of those things that there’s really two parts of it. First was the schedule and the money to get them. Grant Gustin was on Broadway, Melissa Benoist’s in a show and it’s like, when you start to talk about what everybody’s doing in their schedule, it just became prohibitive. And then the other piece is that we obviously want to honor the legacy of everything that was started by Greg Berlanti and the Arrowverse, but it just felt like the best way to do that is just really stick the landing and give the fans something that, again, is meaningful and will last with them.

How long did it take Tyler to nail his narration?

Fletcher: We kind of took our time going through the episode, but it just kind of all came when we were unpacking it, I feel like.

Helbing: And Tyler also did a version on set and I think we used some of it. He just nailed it and I think it was the last day. He was very emotional, for obvious reasons, but he nailed it. He’s just so good. Everybody, whenever they did voiceover work, it’s just like they’re so naturally talented. It’s like they can just get into that head space very quickly.

We’ve seen him be the vulnerable Clark Kent, but this was some next-level emotional stuff, especially with the Lois situation. It almost felt like you took a leash off of him to let him just really be entirely human.

Helbing: I was going to say, we start the show with Clark losing his mom at the end of the first act in the pilot. So then to see sort of replay that moment with Lois and then also that fight with Lex in Episode 406, he’s pretty angry, but I think in the finale’s fight, he just went full anger mode. So it was nice to let him unleash it.

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Bitsie in the street scene with Cudlitz is, I think I rewatched that probably four times. She ate the hell out of that scene.

Helbing: We called those “cowboy scenes.” It’s just the dual in the middle of the road and she’s so good at it. So good. Bitsie has this inherent toughness and grit that when she squares off against an antagonist, she just eats ’em alive. I mean, she’s got every gear imaginable. She can do anything.