In the Superman & Lois series premiere, Clark Kent opened the episode by recounting his Arrowverse journey so far. During the extended flashback, the show recreated the character's first appearance on his debut Action Comics #1 cover, which saw him wearing the original Superman costume and lifting a green car into the air. During the show's TCA panel, showrunner Todd Helbing explained why it was important to bring that moment to life for the new series.
"There's a classic Action Comics cover, right? One of the first with Superman saving this green car. It was a Beetle, I believe, in the comics. So we sorta upgraded the car, made it a little bit more contemporary," Helbing recalled. "But the montage at the beginning, that was something that we wanted to do. I love doing Easter eggs and I love doing comic book covers if we can recreate them. So that just felt like such a great, perfect beat to put into this montage in telling this, the beginning of our story, and setting up the show. I think the suit, the Fleischer version, it's so iconic. It was one of the first and just to see Tyler [Hoechlin] in that, it was pretty cool."
Hoechlin, who plays the Man of Steel himself, also weighed in on what it was like to don that classic outfit. "I will say there's something about putting on the one that we wear most of the time up here. It's great! But there was something different about that. I think it's just a connection to really where this all began," he shared. "As far as paying homage or anything like that was as cool as it got with the suit. I remember putting it on, just laughing, because it was crazy to really feel that effect of how long this character has been around and to kind of go back to where it started, and then to be where we are now creating something new."
On The CW's Superman & Lois, Tyler Hoechlin reprises his Supergirl role as the Man of Steel alongside Elizabeth Tulloch, who plays the intrepid Lois Lane. When a family emergency brings them back to Smallville, Lois and Clark decide to raise their twin sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alex Garfin) there, only to find new adversaries in Wolé Parks' Captain Luthor and Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner). Then, as the boys begin to display some spectacular abilities, life gets even more complicated for the Kents and their new hometown.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. The series airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.