The Real Reason Superman & Lois Will End After Season 4

Summary

• Warner Bros. is canceling
  Superman & Lois,
  so there won’t be any Man of Steel-related properties to compete with James Gunn’s
  Superman: Legacy.
• Superman & Lois
  boasted The CW’s largest total audience with 819,000 viewers during its third season.
• Previous portrayals of Superman have coexisted successfully, making the real reason
  Superman & Lois
  was cancelled questionable.

Apparently, there is not enough room for two Supermen after all, despite the existence of Elseworlds, infinite Earths and multiverses. The President of Entertainment, Brad Schwartz, at The CW came clean in a recent sit-down about the real reason the television series Superman & Lois is being canceled after its fourth season. And, as it turns out, Warner Bros. doesn’t want another Man of Steel property up and running when James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy drops in theaters in 2025… for fear of competition. Schwartz said in an exclusive interview with The Wrap:

They [Warner Bros.] don’t want a competing Superman product in the marketplace.

Season 4 of Superman & Lois will premiere later this fall on The CW. And, according to the same report, the superhero TV series boasted the best total audience numbers — an impressive 819,000 — during its third go-round. Season 3 of The CW’s Walker came in second place with 690,000.

Two Supermen have occupied the entertainment space successfully at the same time in the recent past. While Tom Welling’s version of Clark Kent came of age over 10 seasons on the WB and CW’s Smallville (2001-2011) television series, Brandon Routh took flight in 2006 to portray the Last Son of Krypton in Superman Returns. True, Welling didn’t don his trademark tights until the Season 10 finale of Smallville, but both Supermen successfully and profitably coexisted.

Reign of the Supermen

The CW

Brandon Routh’s portrayal of the Man of Steel in Superman Returns was underrated. And while the fans seemed disenchanted with the 2006 film, as was evident thanks to the movie’s “B+” CinemaScore and its Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 61%, the flick still made $391 million worldwide — arguably a win for Warner Bros. Meanwhile, while Superman Returns was playing in theaters over the summer, Smallville had just wrapped up one of its most intriguing storylines. The Season 5 finale, which was titled Vessel, saw the escape of General Zod. This also marked the show’s last time to air on the WB.

After taking over the body of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), the evil Kryptonian comes face-to-face with Clark Kent (Welling). And when the future Superman refuses to join forces with the general, Zod banishes his adversary to the wastelands of the Phantom Zone! Ratings for Smallville remained quite high during Season 5, with an average of 5.32 million viewers. Neither Superman Returns nor Smallville suffered because each was released in 2006. So, the real reason Warner Bros. shelved Superman & Lois doesn’t make any sense.

Related Every Superman Movie & TV Show, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes Score Here is how every Superman movie and TV show ranks, according to Rotten Tomatoes score.

Superman Returns was released in theaters on June 28, 2006. Meanwhile, the Smallville Season 5 finale aired on May 11, while Season 6 premiered on Septemeber 28 of that same year… well after Superman Returns’ theatrical run had already ended. The two properties never even went head-to-head, allowing them to both be successful and profitable in the same calendar year. And since James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy hits theaters in the summer of 2025, it too could have coexisted with The CW’s fall schedule for Superman & Lois. In the end, Brad Schwartz explanation for the cancellation of Superman & Lois is baffling.

An exact date has not been set for the premiere of
Superman & Lois
Season 4 this fall, at the time of this writing.

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