Look! Up in the sky! It's not a bird; it's not a plane. It's the return of Superman & Lois! After a seven-week hiatus, The CW's latest Arrowverse series will be back with brand new episodes, picking up where Episode 5 left off. The last time we saw them, the Kent family continued to struggle with Jordan's budding powers, but they may have an even bigger problem on their hands. After all, Tag Harris has just escaped the Department of Defense, and he's got an ax to grind with Jordan, who he blames for his new superpowers...
Speaking to CBR, Superman & Lois showrunner Todd Helbing teased what fans can expect when the show returns with "Broken Trust," its sixth episode. He offered a recap of the important events that have happened on the series so far, as well as why viewers should be concerned for Jordan beyond the beating he just took from Tag. He also previewed a tender parent-child scene, explained why he would love to bring The Flash to Smallville and more.
CBR: It's been seven weeks since we had a new episode of Superman & Lois. If you had to catch someone up on what they should remember for next week's episode, what would you tell them?
Todd Helbing: A lot happened in those five episodes! The family moves back to Smallville. Jordan unexpectedly develops powers. They're struggling; the boys are struggling with this new move to a small town and fitting in. Jordan ends up playing football and is developing this relationship with Sarah. The Cushings are struggling in their own way as the town is struggling financially and to bounce back. While Superman is trying to save the world, Lois is fearful that Morgan Edge and his interest in Smallville is going to ultimately put the town in an even worse place than it is now.
As I understand it, the hiatus was unplanned, but we were left on a pretty brutal cliffhanger in Episode 5. Was that always intended as the ending to that episode, or did you find yourselves changing anything to adapt to the break?
I mean, we always try to give the best episode outs as we can. I think that one just happened to be a good one for when we were going down for seven weeks. We had two shutdowns and it just made it impossible for our post-production team, and The CW was gracious enough to really help us. I think that there were changes in a lot of episodes. Once you see the pilot cut together, and then you see the next couple episodes, you know instantly what's working and what isn't working. So we re-shot some stuff and we changed a couple storylines here or there. But we didn't do anything knowing that we were going to go off for seven weeks. We just got lucky that we had a really good sting.
When we last saw Jordan, Tag Harris was in the middle of giving him a pretty nasty beating. How worried should we be about Jordan?
You should be worried, yeah! I mean, there's a worry now that somebody thinks that Jordan has powers and that he knows about this, that he's doing something, and there's a secret out there. This isn't the same time that Clark grew up in a small town. Now there's the internet. There's YouTube, and footage like this gets online. It's a bigger deal than it was when Clark was a kid.
So yeah, there's that worry, but also, he got clocked in the head pretty good. So, you know, Jordan's powers start to emerge at weird times and weird things, so we'll see what spins out of this.
Can you tease your favorite moment or scene from episode five?
I think my favorite moment is in the football game. There's a very parental response. The analogy would be if you were at school, and your child was about to cry in front of all the kids and what that sometimes can do to kids, and so you sort of usher them away, so people don't see them crying or upset or raw emotionally. There's a version like that that we do that I think is really powerful, but it fits into the mythology, which is doubly cool.
Superman & Lois has been largely divorced from the rest of the Arrowverse so far. Do you have a character from another show you'd love to use? Who would it be and why?
I mean, I obviously have an affection for Flash. You know, I love [The Flash star] Grant [Gustin]. That would be a lot of fun. We'll see! I think just the way that things evolved with our show and unintentionally being separated in a way that we have because of COVID, it really changed so many plans that we had. The further along we got, the harder it was to justify having a big explanation. It just felt so false. So that's really where that came from. But John Diggle shows up, in Episode 12! The circumstances led us down this other path, so we'll see what happens next season.
Which character do you relate to the most and why?
I think Jonathan, in a lot of ways. I was a middle child, so I had older brothers that were better at me in a lot of things. Then I had younger brothers. I was like the oldest of the youngest, youngest of the oldest. So I was better than them at things at different points in our lives, and then things would flip and I think maybe I can just identify with that portion of his personality a little bit. But both the brothers.
I mean, I have four brothers, so I get that relationship, when you want to fight some moments and you do, and then the next moment, you're best friends, and then you'll get in a fight, and then if somebody outside of the brothers says something that you don't like, you'll stick up for that guy. It's like you can say things to them that nobody else can. It's like that. I totally understand those relationships.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. The series returns May 18 and will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.