The series finale of Superman & Lois proved to be an emotional rollercoaster for fans of The CW series, with a jump into the future revealing that Lois Lane eventually succumbed to cancer before Clark Kent - now powerless - died from a heart attack.
They were reunited in the afterlife, while their sons, Jonathan and Jordan, were left to protect the world as their respective versions of Superman.
In an interview with Deadline, Superman & Lois co-showrunner Todd Helbing explained, "In the history of Superman, he is in a lot of ways immortal, right? He’s gonna live forever. He’s gonna outlive Lois. He’s gonna outlive his boys. But in this version, with what happened to him, he wasn’t going to do that anymore."
"So it just felt like, instead of having more questions for the audience about, ‘Oh, I wonder what he was like when he was old,’ it’s like, let’s just show it to them. We’ve never seen that," he continued. "I think it’s really moving in a way that’s unexpected. Those are the best kind of endings."
In a separate conversation with Kryptonsite, fellow co-showrunner Brent Fletcher explained what Clark did in the years leading up to his eventual death.
"He has been reaching out and doing diplomatic stuff, and doing economic stuff, and trying to help in ways that don’t involve strength. They involve organization, and participation, and getting other people to join," he noted. "So we felt like that was kind of an interesting thing, for a man that had once had all this power, to then have power in a different way, but also still doing great good."
Helbing and Fletcher went on to confirm the world of Superman & Lois has no Justice League, adding that Jonathan, Jordan, John Henry, and Natalie Lane Irons ultimately fill that void. They're also confident that Superman and Lois are still alive on Earth-Prime, a.k.a. the Arrowverse.
As for whether there were ever any discussions about bringing that world's characters into the final season, Helbing told TV Insider, "I mean, there was talk of it, not to use clips, it’s just one of those things that there’s really two parts of it. First was the schedule and the money to get them."
"Grant Gustin was on Broadway, Melissa Benoist’s in a show and it’s like, when you start to talk about what everybody’s doing in their schedule, it just became prohibitive," he admitted. "And then the other piece is that we obviously want to honor the legacy of everything that was started by Greg Berlanti and the Arrowverse, but it just felt like the best way to do that is just really stick the landing and give the fans something that, again, is meaningful and will last with them."
Helbing also revealed to TV Line that the dog we meet in the finale "was never going to be Krypto with superpowers," and, according to Fletcher, "Lois has just passed away, and it’s so sad, so how do you make the audience not spiral? Fluffy dog! And then the joy of a fluffy dog through Clark Kent, who’s never had a dog, was how we’d get it back to happy a little bit."
Another big death in the finale comes when Doomsday dies in what proves to be a redemptive moment for the monster. "In a lot of ways, Bizarro Superman is the most tragic story in our show," Helbing acknowledged. "That guy was still in there somewhere. There wasn’t a lot of him left, but in this lucid moment, it was him making a sacrifice and finally becoming the hero that he always wanted to be."
That's now it for Superman & Lois, and with the series receiving a definitive ending, DC Studios is safe from having to deal with any #RestoreTheSupermanAndLoisVerse-type campaigns from fans.
Next up for the Man of Tomorrow is next year's Superman movie from James Gunn.