The date is set. 2024 will be the year DC’s footprint on The CW is buried for good. The last of the Arrow Multiverse will come to an end after the fourth season of Superman & Lois. This finishes ten years of a prolific but mixed bag of television inspired by comic book properties.
The CW was sold to the NexStar Broadcasting group for practically nothing and then the culling began. The vast majority of the network’s underperforming DC slate was canceled to save money. The CW, as it turns out, was never profitable in its 15 years of existence and produced its shows at a staggering loss. Ergo, Warner Bros. Discovery was compelled to dump it.
Superman & Lois was spared since it is one of the most watched shows CW still has according to Bam Smack Pow. Its last season averaged 700,000 viewers so it looked like reliable destination programming in the middle of a desert. However, its renewal did not come easily as there are conditions that will hamstring the show in its final year.
The budget was slashed so there will be less room for visual effects. Additionally, the cast will be smaller, so much so that it will be composed of its barest components – the two top-billed characters and Lex Luthor who is becoming a series regular. Once he showed up as last season wound down, they bid farewell to the rest of the supporting cast.
Lana Lang, her kids and ex-husband, and the remaining Mannheim family won’t be seen barring guest appearances, but they weren’t the only ones shown the door. Deadline reports the roster cuts extend to the writers’ room. The number of writers, they say, is dropping from eight to five – a “trim” that affects one other show.
All American spinoff Homecoming is losing two of its nine writers while its parent scripted series will see no reduction in its writing staff. Fellow flagship show Walker is also immune to the trimming, but WBTV’s agreement in June to deliver original programming on the cheap at a reduced rate for the sake of licensing fees still stands.
One of the staff writers to receive his pink slip, Adam Mallinger (known on X as the Bitter Script Reader), went public with his release. “Disappointing news – due to budget cuts, I won’t be returning on staff at Superman & Lois for season 4,” he posted. “…this isn’t what I was hoping for, but after the cuts to cast and episode order, it’s no surprise either.”
Mallinger added, “My showrunners were in a difficult spot and I want to be clear they’ve handled it the best they could.” Deadline hears he was “assigned an episodic script which he will write as a freelancer.”
What do you make of Superman & Lois being canceled after Season 4?