Superman fans are feeling a little disappointed today after The CW’s president of entertainment, Brad Schwartz, revealed to TheWrap.com the surprising reason behind the cancellation of “Superman & Lois.” Despite boasting strong ratings and critical acclaim, the show will conclude with its upcoming fourth season, a decision ultimately made by Warner Bros. according to Schwartz.
“They don’t want a competing Superman product in the marketplace,” Schwartz stated, referencing James Gunn’s highly anticipated 2025 Superman movie, “Superman: Legacy.”
“Superman & Lois” has carved a unique niche within the superhero genre, showcasing the Man of Steel as a husband, father, and pillar of his community. The show resonated with audiences by exploring Superman’s vulnerabilities and triumphs alongside his personal life, offering a fresh perspective on the classic character.
Whether this decision ultimately benefits the Superman brand or stifles creative freedom remains to be seen. The fourth and final season of “Superman & Lois” will premiere in the Fall of 2024 (i.e. September-October), marking the end of an era, concluding DC’s run on The CW, which started with the launch of “Arrow” in 2012.
What do you think about the cancellation of “Superman & Lois”? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Why is WB so worried about competing? Fans like me can enjoy BOTH at once! The more Superman content, the better! I hope they don’t cancel My Adventures with Superman cartoon.
This seems like a pretty silly reason to me. I love Superman & Lois, but I can’t imagine a CW show has that big of an audience, especially in comparison to a major studio film. How many people are there who could even really be confused?
I’m not sure I buy it myself. Hasn’t James Gunn already said they’re going to be doing Elsewords?
We’ll see. As far as I know, the only Elseworlds stuff they have going is Matt Reeves’s The Batman franchise, and Joker 2. Both things he inherited, and may not have had much say in whether or not they continue. I think we need to see if something else comes along to know whether or not that’s something Gunn actually wants to do, or something he had to create just for those two franchises.
I’m not surprised by this development. Superman, as a franchise, needs fancy costumes, high quality scripts and elaborate sets to adapts its operatic, larger-than-life story arcs and that means getting high budgets for its productions and a show S&L wouldn’t have been able to provide that. Yes, S&L is more expensive than the average CW show, but even after all these years, TV budgets are significantly lower than those of movies. There is also the matter of merchandise. Profits in big franchises like Marvel, Star Wars and Transformers have been declining because of the negative reception to their multimedia projects,… Read more »
WTF WB? Superman & Lois is one of the best modern Superman live action takes in years it deserved at least one more Season. WB for years when to came to the DC Comics brand never wanted a Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman project to animated or tv on at the same time as the movies. History repeating itself yet again. Hopefully this gets fixed with The DCU.
Ah, I see. We got a wonderful Superman TV series that has received good reviews and ratings both critically and amongst the fans. We’ve got people who never cared about Superman who suddenly changed their negative outlook about Superman into a positive outlook after watching “Superman & Lois.” And what happens? It gets cancelled due to Warner Brothers and James Gunn. I’ve had my suspicions about Gunn’s decisions, and yet, I’ve remained cautiously optimistic. I’ve stayed quiet to keep the harmony amongst us Superman-fans. But the more I learn about Gunn’s decisions, the less I trust him. Furthermore, I find… Read more »
And while I wasn’t impressed with Tyler on supergirl, i was completely sold on him in the first 5 minutes of episode 1 with the ‘thanks! My mom made it for me’. I just remember not realizing I welled up and was like ‘this is all some of us have been asking for’
Ther have also been comments from WB Execs talking about the expense of making this show, how they can’t put it on its streaming service, so basically its a loss maker for them as they have been unable to monetise it. As such I think they are trying to deflect some of the blame from themselves.
Looking back in the past few weeks we have heard that Matthew Vaughn wants to make a Red Son Superman film starring Henry Cavilll as Superman, James Gunn confirming that JJ Abrams’s Superman project is still in the works, Marc Guggenheim talked with Brandon Routh about a possible Superman series, and now this news on the CW essentially blaming WB for Superman and Lois coming to a premature close. While this is a lot of news to process, I will be focussing on the news that is presented here on this page. And while some are blaming James Gunn for… Read more »
The CW is on it’s own now. Not sure exactly what’s going to be on it as they haven’t said much. News and re-runs is all you get now. The re-runs for the most part are older comedies.