SDCC 2024: Superman & Lois: Tyler Hoechlin Reflects on Playing Clark Kent for Almost a Decade

This fall The CW will air the final season of the beloved Superman & Lois series which has followed the lives of Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) for the last four years. There was hope that the series could continue past this point given James Gunn and Peter Safran’s previous comments, but with the new era of DC ramping up and David Corenswet taking on the mantle of the wholesome hero for the upcoming Superman film. Hoechlin, Tulloch and Superman & Lois as well as showrunner/executive producer Todd Helbing and executive producer Brent Fletcher attended San Diego Comic-Con to hype up the shortened season coming soon.

Hoechlin first joined the fray as the “Man of Steel” back in 2016 for a guest star role on Supergirl as Kara Zor-El’s cousin, Kal-El. From there fans fell in love with his portrayal which led to more frequent appearances that would later include Tulloch and soon his own spin-off series which has introduced characters like Steel, Onomatopoeia, Bruno Mannheim and Lex Luthor. 

Tyler Hoechlin Reflects on Playing Superman

Hoechlin reflected on his long-standing portrayal of Clark/Superman that he’s been at for nearly a decade in an interview with ComicBook. When asked how he feels the character has grown during that time, Hoechlin believes he just evolved with the show. “I don’t think grown, I think it just evolved with the show,” he said. “I think going from guest starring on the other shows and the Arrowverse and then coming into this, I think that we had some really great conversations going into the show about how it would be different. 

I think from the time that we even started shooting the pilot, just seeing some of the shots that our great director Lee Toland Krieger was doing and feeling what was going on at Video Village; it just kind of really gave that confirmation of like, ‘Ok, yeah, this is gonna be different and it’s gonna feel a little different.’ I think it just gave us time to fully explore who these characters really were. I felt like on the other shows, I was always very aware of, ‘I’m here to support the character whose name is on the title here.’ Like that’s my job here. So, in this sense, we actually had the time to just kind of tell our story. So, yeah, I don’t know if it really grew, but I think it just kind of evolved into a deeper version of who these characters were.”

What is Superman & Lois Season 4 About?

Plot details pertaining to the final season have largely been kept under wraps but over the last few days it has certainly begun to get a bit clearer. One thing previously confirmed was that this will be a shortened season with just 10 episodes, so it’ll be interesting how all the story threads are tied up by the end. A promotional poster showed Superman’s ripped cape above Earth which seemingly hinted at the iconic Death of Superman event from the 1990s coming into play. A brief clip of some new footage was shown at San Diego Comic-Con which confirmed people’s suspicions with a battle between Doomsday and Superman.

Superman & Lois season 4 premieres Thursday, October 17th with a two-hour premiere beginning at 8 p.m. ET.