The big twist in Superman & Lois' premiere was that Wolé Parks had been cast as a new version of Lex Luthor who had escaped his planet during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
On his world, the Man of Steel had turned evil and laid waste to Luthor's home, something we learned in last night's episode had resulted in the murder of his wife, Lois Lane. However, with that, came a retcon revealing that Lex is, in fact, John Henry Irons, a.k.a DC Comics superhero Steel.
It's a little random, but in an interview with CBR, writer Jai Jamison elaborated on what led to the change in creative. "From pretty much the very beginning, the first day in the room, we were thinking about Captain Luthor as having a redemption arc, or kind of explaining what happened on his Earth that made him the way he is now, laying the groundwork for him to come around."
"Then, maybe a month or two later - I want to say it was last April or May - that a writer's assistant, Adam [Mallinger], pitched, "What if we made him John Henry Irons?" and then it just snowballed from there," he continued. "It was that revelatory pitch, that the skies opened up."
The switch also came as a surprise to Parks, who auditioned for the role of Lex and was under the belief that he would be playing him moving forward.
"When I found that it was John Henry Irons, I had to go back to the drawing board, on my own, at least, and figure out, 'Okay, now who is this guy?' Because they're two totally different characters with two totally different perspectives on life and how they see the world and how they interact with the world," the actor said. "So I had to change all that, and it was exciting, because this is an iconic character we've never seen on screen before me - again, outside of the Shaq movie, I guess, or whatever - but for me, also, it was also terrifying because I'm like, 'Whoa, I've been crafting this version of Lex,' and then suddenly, it's like, 'Oh, okay, let me just make this new version.'"
It feels like The CW might have realised that this new take on Lex wasn't really working and that's why the change was made. It's a shame in some ways as Superman & Lois marked the first time a Black actor was playing Lex, but it's certainly interesting to wonder what a character like Steel could bring to this corner of The CWVerse (especially if he's eventually redeemed as a hero).
After all, Steel is someone with serious spinoff potential beyond this show...