“Superman & Lois” stars Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent/Superman) and Elizabeth ‘Bitsie’ Tulloch (Lois Lane) were special guests at Fan Expo Canada this past weekend, with the pair participating in a special panel titled “Behind the ‘S’,” which took place on Saturday, August 27 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
During the panel Tyler took issue with people sometimes saying Superman is boring or unrelatable as a character. “I don’t know why the good guy gets labelled ‘boring’ a lot,” he said. “There’s a tendency to do that. For me, how many people do you know who consistently choose to do what they think is right? Like always, without question. That’s not a boring character to me. I think it’s interesting to see someone consistently do that no matter what the stakes are. When there is a moral dilemma that’s what’s interesting for him because you get to see what he chooses. I don’t find him boring in the least. I think it’s finding ways that those beliefs and values he has, his optimism, the hope that he has, the eternal hope, to see that stressed all the time and never see him falter, that’s inspiring to see someone maintain that no matter what the circumstances. That’s its own challenge.”
As for Bitsie Tulloch, she says she was very conscious of how important the character of Lois Lane was. “I think Lois is a very powerful, very ambitious, very driven, uncompromising character. I was very cognizant of the fact that when I started playing this role in particular the political climate worldwide, not just in the US, journalists were under fire. It felt like it was more important than ever.”
On the topic of the show setting Clark and Lois in the role of parents, Tulloch added, “I just personally feel grateful we get to be parents because the amount of depth and layers and places to go with that story, having teenagers, in my point of view is great. We have a lot of places to go.”
“The family element is something that is really nice,” Hoechlin added. “I always like to say it’s fun doing our kids origin story, of them becoming people and who they are. It’s really fun for it not to be his origin story.”
When asked about which side of his character’s persona was the true identity, Superman or Clark Kent, Tyler replied, “I’ve never felt like one is more of a true identity than the other for him. I feel like it’s all equal parts. It’s very much who he is, just different versions of himself. I think people can relate to that too because you’ll feel a certain way around certain friend groups or different people. Different parts of you will come out more and come to life more. I think that’s how he is as well. Whatever he’s doing, whatever his focus is, that’s that part of him. People call him Superman, but to him he’s not Superman. I always got to look at him as ‘who is this guy?’ What does he believe in? Why is he who he is, why does he do what he does? That actually gave me a different path to finding who he was and made him a little more relatable to me that way.”
So what can we expect for the upcoming third season of “Superman & Lois”?
Tulloch shared, “I read Season 3, Episode 1 on the plane last night. It’s great! Tyler and I were saying this season might be the most exciting from our point of view because we’ve been given the general arc of this season and Lois’ particular storyline is like ‘Whoa! I did not have any idea they were going in that direction.'”
Even though the role of Jonathan Kent is being recast, the show is on schedule to begin filming in September as planned. Season 3 of “Superman & Lois” is expected to premiere in early 2023.
