Throughout its 12-year existence, The CW's Arrowverse brought some of the most beloved, iconic DC superheroes to the small screen. It started with Arrow, but it quickly spun into an all-encompassing phenomenon through the arrival of heroes such as The Flash, Supergirl, the Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman and more. Of course, it wouldn't have been a DC Universe without Superman and the Man of Steel had plenty of involvement... even if it was very nearly short-lived.
Portrayed by Tyler Hoechlin, Superman first appeared in the second season of Supergirl back in 2016 (well, season 1 if we include the CGI render and stand-in actor). He had great chemistry with Melissa Benoist's Girl of Steel and fans were very receptive towards his light-hearted, comic-accurate approach. He eventually went on to lead his own spinoff Superman and Lois (alongside Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane), which became the very last original series in the Arrowverse.
However, it sounds like that very nearly didn't happen.
Tyler Hoechlin reveals Superman was almost killed off in an Arrowverse crossover
Tyler Hoechlin recently appeared on an episode of the Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum podcast and reflected on his time as the Man of Steel. During that conversation, he revealed that his part-time stint as Kal-El of Krypton in the early Arrowverse days very nearly ended in the character meeting his demise in a crossover.
Superman had become a fixture of the later Arrowverse crossovers, as it presented the CW shows with an opportunity to bring him back after his first four-episode guest-stint on Supergirl, while also allowing him to interact with characters on The Flash, Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman. With that, he appeared in all three episodes of Elseworlds and four of the five Crisis On Infinite Earths episodes. It turns out that the second might never have happened, as Hoechlin reveals:
"So it was three episodes, and [Greg Berlanti] goes: 'Okay, cool... well, they are telling me it's the last time I can use you as the character'. And I was like, 'Okay, great. Dude, it was supposed to be two episodes, this will be seven now, great, awesome.' He's like, 'I might even kill you!' I'm like, 'Do what you got to do - great, sounds great!' That was the conversation going into Elseworlds."
But Superman wouldn't die in Elseworlds. Instead, it was set in motion that one of Oliver Queen or Barry Allen might die instead - something that would culminate in the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover the very next year; a crossover that Hoechlin's Man of Steel would return in.
As for why the DC TV shows were contemplating killing Superman off, it was likely down to the "embargo" from the DC Extended Universe films, which prevented the shows from using the same characters that were prominent in the movies. We had seen this a few years earlier when characters from the Suicide Squad (including Amanda Waller) were nixed - or, in Waller's case, even killed off - in Arrow as the DCEU films were using them. Notable exceptions were made for the likes of The Flash, who was headlining his own series and movie, but it appeared that Superman might not be part of the exclusive agreement.
Thankfully, however, they were able to sidestep that by bringing him back for the following crossover. And even more thankfully, they opted not to kill him off... for Hoechlin, Bertlanti, and The CW had bigger plans for Superman.
Hoechlin's hope for more full-time work led to Superman and Lois
What makes all of this even more interesting is that Tyler Hoechlin actually went to Greg Berlanti in the hopes of finding something more consistent for his next chapter. As far as he was concerned, his time as the Man of Steel was done. Superman may have lived to fight another day in the Arrowverse, but they couldn't use the character anymore (or so they thought), so Hoechlin wanted to find a more full-time job where he could get to know the people he was working with and "have a bit of a base".
As he says:
"... so I reached out to Greg, I sent him an email and I was like, 'Hey man, look, my life's changed a little bit since the last time we sat down. I'm looking for something a little bit more consistent. If you're open to something, I'd love to come in and talk to you about doing something together.'
For me, Superman's done... they've told him it's the last time you can use the character on the shows. So he's like, 'I'd love that, come in.' So we sit and we have a meeting and we talk, and at one point he's like 'Look, I think I can get Superman to happen, but I need to know you're on board before I start making those calls cause I'm going to have to convince some people to do it."
Of course Hoechlin was on-board. This was an opportunity for him to play the character he had been playing for years but also on a full-time basis like he had hoped. This also presented him with the opportunity to return as the character in the linear Arrowverse one more time, as he appeared in Crisis ahead of the debut of Superman and Lois. The events of the Crisis itself altered the timeline to set up the new series (Clark and Lois Lane's son Jonathan became "the boys"), but that ultimately didn't matter as the characters we eventually met in Superman and Lois were retroactively retconned as doppelgangers of the Arrowverse versions (allowing the show to exist in its own continuity and only be loosely tied to the other DC TV shows).
But even though that change didn't take form until season 2, Superman and Lois was clearly very different from the beginning. Prioritizing the characters' personal stories over the episodic nature of television, this was a family drama before it was a superhero show, focusing on the lives of Clark Kent, Lois Lane and their twin sons Jonathan and Jordan. Everything - from the mature storytelling to the way that it was shot - was different about this one.
That was part of the unique selling point for Hoechlin, as he reveals that he and Berlanti spoke about how the show would be different:
"So we talked about what it would look like and how it would be different, and all this kind of stuff, and I was like 'All right.' I was like, 'Hey, you know what? If it looks like that, I'm down, I'm in,' and I was walking out the door, and I heard him say to his assistant, he's like, 'Get Peter Roth on the phone.'"
History was made from that moment, as Hoechlin and Berlanti concocted a plan that would ultimately lead to Superman and Lois. Elizabeth Tulloch would join Hoechlin as both reprised their Supergirl roles (but, again, as different versions of Clark and Lois) and they would deliver one of the best partnerships the small screen has ever seen, offering up arguably the strongest, most nuanced iteration of the iconic Superman and Lois Lane relationship ever put to any screen in the process.
To think that Hoechlin's version of Superman was almost killed off but he ultimately ended up co-headlining his own show instead. I can safely say that I - and so many others - am thankful that it all worked out the way that it did, for Superman and Lois is easily one of the greatest superhero TV shows of all time.