Reportedly, The CW’s new series ‘Superman & Lois’ began production before being shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, so it’s unclear whether or not it will be able to debut this fall as planned, but rest assured, it is on its way. Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch star in the titular roles, but this time, the Man of Steel and his intrepid reporter wife will be seen as they never have before in live-action– as parents. While Lois gave birth to a baby boy last autumn, thanks to the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover, they are now the parents to two teenage sons, Jonathan and Jordan.
Jonathan is described as “clean-cut, modest and kind-hearted, with an aw-shucks attitude that somehow doesn’t seem dated,” while Jordan is “wildly intelligent, but his mercurial temperament and social anxiety limit his interactions with people, and consequently, Jordan prefers to spend most of his free time alone, playing video games.” Jordan Elsass will portray Jonathan with Alex Garfin as Jordan.
In the meantime, Elsass can be seen in the new Hulu miniseries ‘Little Fires Everywhere’, starring and executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. While promoting that, he took a moment to discuss working on ‘Superman & Lois’, and it seems that Elsass can use this shut-down time to his advantage– he’s never seen any of the Arrowverse shows!
“It’s funny because I actually was a huge ‘Smallville’ fan growing up, but I don’t think I ever got into ‘Arrow’ or ‘The Flash’ or ‘Supergirl’ or ‘Batwoman’ or anything like that. It’s something that I have decided I will start watching because I think it’s really necessary for a show like that, that already has an established universe, that I get into it beforehand.
“With ‘Little Fires’, because it has never been established in a live-action setting, I was like, “You know what? I can get away with waiting to read the book, answering the questions out on my own.” Whereas with the CW show that’s coming out, I definitely want to make sure that I’m educated, I know the lore, I have these shows in the back of my head at all times.”
This echoes the sentiment he had previously expressed in an interview with Kryptonsite:
The CW
“In all honesty, I’m not too familiar with the Arrowverse as it is right now. Going back to the TV shows I would watch when I was younger, ‘Smallville’ was one of my absolute favorites. It was very similar to this, right? In [‘Superman & Lois’], Clark and Lois move back to Smallville with their sons. But going off that I mean, yeah, something like this, I want to delve into those comics to at least have that there if I need to draw from that.”
And from his character’s description, it sounds as though Jonathan Kent will fall in line with the Clark from ‘Smallville’ as a popular football star, while his brother is more of an outcast.
In that same interview, Elsass revealed that he had originally auditioned for the role of Jordan, but that the producers switched him out for Garfin, saying “So originally, my castmate Alex [Garfin], I auditioned for the character he’s playing, Jordan, which is my name in real life, which is funny.”
In another tease of what’s to come, he stated:
“I think the beauty of this show is that it’s going to be a little bit less about Superman as Superman. It’s more going to be about Clark Kent as Clark Kent. I think that’s the beauty, and that’ll make the character more relatable for people. That’s going to bring a whole fresh new take, having to deal with these family issues. It’s going to be a whole new side, I think to Clark/Superman that we’ve never seen before.”
Check back for updates on ‘Superman & Lois’ as they arrive!
Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.
