Superman & Lois Casts Adam Rayner As Morgan Edge

Warner Bros. TV and The CW announced today that they have cast Adam Rayner (The Fix, Tyrant) in the role of Morgan Edge on the forthcoming superhero drama Superman & Lois. The part was previously played in the Arrowverse by Heroes star Adrian Pasdar in the third season of Supergirl. This marks the second major character, behind Lois Lane’s father General Sam Lane, to be recast for the upcoming series, likely suggesting that both of those characters have significant roles and could not secure time commitments from the prior actors for the season’s lengthy shoot. Lane, now to be played by Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck, Life Sentence), was originally portrayed by Glenn Morshower (24, Star Trek: Generations).

That these recastings come after the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event gives an in-universe explanation for any changes to the appearance of personality of the two characters. The last audiences saw of Edge in the Arrowverse, he was imprisoned following a showdown with Supergirl and Lena Luthor.

Per Deadline, who broke the news, Rayner will be a series regular, and his take on Edge is described as “an intelligent, eloquent and impassioned self-made mogul who’s innate ability to motivate is the means to his success and others’ demise.”

Edge had taken over CatCo when Cat Grant left to work in the White House, but had it bought out from under him by Lena, which didn’t go well considering that one of his biggest personality traits is that he takes everything personally and can get brutally vindictive toward those who he perceives as having betrayed him. After a number of squabbles where he largely managed to keep his hands clean, he was eventually apprehended by Guardian after sending a hitman to kill James Olsen and Lena.

In the comics, Morgan Edge is the son of Vincent Edge, a wealthy and corrupt media magnate who, among other things, may have orchestrated the death of his wife (Morgan’s mother). It was his hatred of his father, shouted to the heavens, that created a lasting relationship between Edge and the hordes of Apokolips when the heavens seemingly answered him in the form of a vision of Darkseid.

The relationship between Edge and Darkseid was a part of his journey in both the pre- and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths versions of his character. In the pre-Crisis era, Edge was developed by creator Jack Kirby to explore the idea of organized crime developing roots in corporate America. DC editorial reportedly asked Kirby to keep Edge around, and the villainous version of the character was revealed to be an impostor, freeing up a smarmy-but-not-actually-EVIL Edge to recur for years.

In both versions of the backstory, Edge at was the money and brains behind Intergang, an organized crime group that uses superhumans as muscle and used alien tech. In the post-Crisis Superman comics, Morgan took over his father’s business interests and forced Vincent into early retirement. Those interests included GBS, a TV station that employed Cat Grant, Jimmy Olsen, and Clark Kent at various times over the years.