Despite the fact that the DC Films Universe is separate to the DC TV Universe, we've known for a while now that Warner Bros. has a say in which characters are and aren't allowed to receive the spotlight on the small screen. As a result, the fact that Henry Cavill is flying around as Superman in the movies made it quite the surprise when Tyler Hoechlin was added to Supergirl season two as the Man of Steel.
Unfortunately, it's looking like his two appearances in The CW series will be it for a while as that's all the show's producers could get out of Warner Bros. (likely because they realised it would help with ratings after Supergirl's move from CBS, and it most definitely did). Here's what executive producer Andrew Kreisberg told Kryptonsite during a recent Q&A when they asked about Superman's future.
"We’re so happy with what we get to do. I don’t mean for that to sounds as bad as it does, but we asked if we could have Superman in the first episode, and DC and Warner Bros. said ‘you could have him for the first two episodes’ and we were like ‘great!’ I’m not going to sit here and say that there’s never going to be a world in which there’s a Superman TV show and that Tyler’s going to star in it — I don’t know what the future holds, but right now that’s not our focus. Right now, we’re working on Supergirl, which is the flagship, and we’re working on a way for Tyler to reprise the role. That’s really what our focus is: on Supergirl."
This is massively disappointing, but it's to be expected. The biggest plus here is the fact that Kreisberg is at least working on getting Hoechlin back somewhere down the line. After all, it would be pretty ridiculous if we never get to see Superman again after his appearances in the first two episodes, but it definitely sounds like there's a chance that's going to end up being the case. What do you think?