‘Superman & Lois’ Showrunner Says No Arrowverse Callbacks Or Easter Eggs In Series Finale : “It’s Just Not Feasible”
Despite spinning out of the popular DC television continuity, Superman & Lois showrunner Todd Helbing says that while the series’ upcoming finale will “honor” the Arrowverse, it will not feature any direct or overt references to its events or characters.
This behind-the-scenes insight into Big Blue’s latest TV outing was provided by Helbing during a promotional interview given to Entertainment Weekly’s Sydney Bucksbaum in promotion of Superman & Lois‘ upcoming fourth (and sadly final) season premiere.
Their time together began with an inquiry from Bucksbaum regarding the ‘pressure’ of honoring the Arrowverse with the conclusion of Superman & Lois, to which Helbbing asserted, “Inherently there’s so many pressures you feel with a TV show — just writing the script was pressure, and then producing it, and the second that the show began, it’s about Superman and Lois Lane, so there’s a responsibility that comes with that too.”
“With the Arrowverse, I’ve had 10 years of working in these shows and these worlds, and you want to do it justice, but you have to separate yourself from those feelings or you are not going to leave your house because it’ll be overwhelming,” the showrunner continued.
To this end, Helbin did admit that while he and co-showrunner Brent Fletcher did feel some level of “responsibility” in regards to closing out the Arrowverse in a way that properly honored its 12 year existence, rather than try to cram the final season full of cameos and references, the pair decided that “The best way that we could approach it was to just do the best version for our show.”
“[As for] Easter eggs, there’s the idealistic version — in a comic book you’d have all these characters at your disposal, so you can have whatever you want,” said Helbing. “But when you’re talking about schedules and money and budgets, it would be awesome to have [The Flash star] Grant [Gustin] in this, but it’s just not feasible.”
Drawing his thoughts to a close, the showrunner added, “There are questions like that that come up, and then there’s the reality that hits you, and so ultimately, as we discussed in the room, we can just do what we can do, and I think the best way to honor what has been done for 10 years was to hopefully have the audience watch it and then feel satisfied.”
Previously, Helbing explained that the The CW’s network’s decision to divorce Superman & Lois from their successful Arrowverse line, was made due to numerous complications that arose due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the original [pilot] there were a lot of references to Crisis and there was a Flash mention, and when we were shooting the original intent was to be part of the Arrowverse,” explained the showrunner to Bucksbaum in 2022. “But you know, then the pandemic hit and things changed and we couldn’t do a crossover with Batwoman, and all of these references to Crisis through the pilot rewriting phase got stripped out just to make everything a little bit more clear for a broader audience.”
‘”Then at some point in Season 1 I had a conversation with DC, and we clearly wanted to put our own stamp on the show and our take on the Superman mythology,” he further detailed. “The original intent was to be part of the Arrowverse, but the further along we got and now, unfortunately, with the other shows being off the air, it just felt like the best decision was to have our Superman & Lois not be on the same Earth as the Arrowverse.”
The send-off to the Man of Steel, Lois, and the overall Arrowverse project begins when Superman & Lois‘ fourth season premieres on October 17th.
More About:TV Shows