Superman & Lois: Breaking Down the Trailer

Last week, The CW blew fans away with a full trailer for Superman & Lois which not only made a good impression, but successfully shook loose the negative preconceptions that many fans had after seeing the baffling “family crest” teaser, which was released about a month earlier and contained virtually no footage from the show. The cinematic look of the series — it reportedly has a little budgetary boost from HBO Max, where it will make its streaming home, just like Stargirl does — and the promising story elements all came together…but what exactly was it that we saw? Like most Arrowverse trailers, there was a lot there if you knew where to look.

We took some time over the weekend to break down what we noticed, and to come up with a dozen or so big takeaways from the trailer. Hopefully these will help you digest what’s to come.

In Superman & Lois, after years of facing megalomaniacal supervillains, monsters wreaking havoc on Metropolis, and alien invaders intent on wiping out the human race, the world’s most famous superhero, The Man of Steel aka Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin, “Teen Wolf”) and comic books’ most famous journalist, Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch, “Grimm”), come face to face with one of their greatest challenges ever – dealing with all the stress, pressures, and complexities that come with being working parents in today’s society.

Complicating the already daunting job of raising two boys, Clark and Lois must also concern themselves with whether or not their sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass, “Little Fires Everywhere”) and Jordan (Alexander Garfin, “The Peanuts Movie”) could inherit their father’s Kryptonian superpowers as they grow older. Returning to Smallville to handle some Kent family business, Clark and Lois are reacquainted with Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui, “Entourage”), a local loan officer who also happens to be Clark’s first love, and her Fire Chief husband Kyle Cushing (Erik Valdez, “Graceland”). The adults aren’t the only ones rediscovering old friendships in Smallville as the Kent sons are reacquainted with Lana and Kyle’s rebellious daughter, Sarah (Inde Navarrette, “Wander Darkly”). Of course, there’s never a dull moment in the life of a superhero, especially with Lois’ father, General Samuel Lane (Dylan Walsh, “Nip/Tuck”) looking for Superman to vanquish a villain or save the day at a moment’s notice.

Meanwhile, Superman and Lois’ return to idyllic Smallville is set to be upended when a mysterious stranger (Wolé Parks, “All American”) enters their lives. Based on the characters from DC created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman & Lois is written and executive produced by Todd Helbing (“The Flash”) and executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Geoff Johns. The series is from Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Check out our big takeaways here, ahead of the series premiere later this month.

Superman: The Wedding Album

Clark and Lois’s wedding: in the comics, it was in a church – and in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, it was in Metropolis (like most of the rest of the show). Here, it seems they tied the knot on the farm at Smallville, suggesting that Lois has more of an emotional attachment to the town than is typically seen in most versions of the story.

Dreams

“When we were dreaming about having a family, it didn’t look like this, did it?”

That’s not necessarily an Easter egg or reference, but it’s certainly an interesting way of phrasing it, since in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Clark revealed that he had always pictured he and Lois having two kids and living on Earth (whereas when they had just Jonathan, they lived on Argo City).

Lost Jobs

As many expected when the initial synopses came out for the series, it appears that Lois and Clark have both been laid off or let go at The Daily Planet. It isn’t immediately clear whether they were laid off as a result of financial pressures on the journalism industry – this was something that has happened in the comics a few times since the ’80s – or whether, perhaps, that shellshocked look as they move through the newsroom is because something went wrong and they were fired for cause. The latter, which feels far more unlikely, could plausibly tie to the Brian Michael Bendis idea in the comics of Clark and Lois in trouble after Perry White discovers that Clark is Superman.

Kids with severe anxiety

In the comics, Jonathan Kent is a ball of positive energy, while his best friend, Damian Wayne, is the one with some emotional baggage. You would more or less expect that dynamic from Superman’s and Batman’s kids, respectively. In the show, it appears as though Jonathan and his brother Jordan are struggling to deal with their new environment after being shunted from Metropolis to Smallville.

Smallville

Speaking of – they don’t use the same farm from Smallville, even though they had used that for the “Elseworlds” and “Crisis on Infinite Earths” Arrowverse events. That said, they’re bringing the family to Smallville – and while that isn’t the same as the farm where Lois and Clark raised Jonathan Kent in the comic book miniseries Superman: Lois & Clark, it’s similar enough to the idyllic “upstate New York” kind of environment they gave their son growing up away from Metropolis and the hustle and bustle of living with famous parents in a huge city. It’s also a good place – as we saw in Smallville – to learn to use any potential powers the kids might get without the risk of injury that comes with flying through skyscrapers.

Parents gone too soon

It looks like both Jonathan and Martha Kent have passed away at the start of the series. It isn’t clear whether they passed away together, a la the New 52 timeline where they were in a car crash, or whether Martha’s death is a more recent event, which would explain Clark and Lois moving to Smallville now. After all, if Clark got laid off and then inherited a house, it’s easy to justify moving out of the big, presumably-expensive city.
On a similar note, that shot of Jonathan and Martha is like so many of them over the years, but virtually identical to the one in the opening pages of All-Star Superman.

Lana

We get very little information here about Lana Lang. Reportedly, she and her husband will have two daughters, and the husband will struggle with alcoholism. Here, ironically, it’s Clark who’s talking about drinking.

In the comics, one of the earliest notable Superman stories from the creator of Lois and Clark’s son Jon was a story about a friend of Clark’s from Smallville who had been on a ventilator for years following a drunk driving accident. It seems unlikely the show will explore exactly that, but executive producer Geoff Johns certainly has been known to jump on ideas of Jurgens’s in his comics writing in the past.

Getting drunk

Clark jokes that sometimes he wishes he could get drunk, and of course that’s a nod to Superman’s invulnerability, but fans of the Arrowverse shows will know that Cisco Ramon has in fact created a concoction that will allow super-speedsters and Kryptonians to get buzzed if that’s what they want to do.

It does seem likely that a middle-aged Superman with teenage sons is less likely to play with some of that “drunk superhero” humor than the younger and comparably less globally-famous Supergirl or The Flash, since it has been established over years on Supergirl that Superman is a globally recognized icon that people look to for moral guidance.

You’re Superman?

The teens learn that Superman is their father, complete with some super-feats to prove it. They seem pretty upset, unlike Jonathan in the comics, who adjusted pretty well. Of course, he was younger when he found out.

Interestingly, the idea of Clark picking up the truck to show his kids he really is Superman mirrors a scene from Superman: The Movie, in which his parents first discover that a very young Clark has powers when the trucks slips down off of a jack, and Clark holds it up so that it doesn’t crush his father, who is working on the tire.

Sam Lane

Here we get the new Sam Lane, recast from his appearances in Supergirl, and it seems he’s got some of his military work going on in the area around Smallville. 

The Stranger?

There’s a creepy guy with a cooler full of Kryptonite and a suit of black armor that somewhat resembles what Colin Salmon wore as General Zod on Krypton.

Could this be The Stranger, played by Wole Parks? Certainly seems likely, although it’s not a guarantee, obviously. It does seem likely that this armored figure is the same thing that blasts into Clark at high speed in Earth’s atmosphere later.

In space

The shot of Superman floating in space, and turning slowly around while sunlight bathes him, really has a Man of Steel vibe for many fans – and that’s not the only spot. Some of the emotional beats of the trailer, as well as its color palette and very cinematic look, have a bit of a Man of Steel flavor to it.