As a new Superman era will begin with the release of James Gunn’s Superman movie on the 2025 release schedule, another era will be drawing to a close on the 2024 TV schedule with Superman & Lois Season 4. The final season of The CW’s last DC TV show will be comprised of just 10 episodes and were hit with major budget cuts in order to get a proper ending rather than just leave fans hanging with that climactic Season 3 cliffhanger. Lois Lane actress Elizabeth Tulloch opened up about the circumstances that led to Superman & Lois’ cancellation, as well as shared her displeasure with fans getting angry with DC Studios co-head James Gunn about it.
There Were Three Factors That Led To Superman & Lois’ Cancellation
Battlestar Galactica and The Mandalorian actress Katee Sackhoff spoke with Tulloch about Superman & Lois, among other topics, on the latest episode of her podcast The Sackhoff Show. That included inquiring about if there was any truth to the rumor that the reason the DC series was cancelled was because Warner Bros. doesn’t want two competing live-action versions of Superman. Tulloch acknowledged that she’d heard the same rumor, and then after saying she has “tremendous respect” for James Gunn and Peter Safran, who run DC Studios together, she stated:
We went into this thinking we were gonna go seven seasons. That’s what we were told, so it was shocking that everything happened. It was almost like a triple whammy, to be honest. People keep putting the blame on Gunn and Safran, but the reality is The CW was sold to Nexstar, Warner Bros. had had a new head in David Zaslav, and then also DC Comics had new heads.
Elizabeth Tulloch then regardless of her feelings about how Superman & Lois was handled, she “trusts” that James Gunn is a fan of the Superman IP and is confident that his Superman movie will be “amazing.” As such, whether or not the Superman rumor mentioned has any legitimacy and played into Superman & Lois being concluded much sooner than expected along with those other three reasons is “neither here nor there” in her mind because “it’s over.” So instead, the show’s cast and crew had to make do with the limited resources they were given. Tulloch continued:
All we could do was go into it and give it our best, and it was tough because [in] Season 4, we had major budget cuts. We went from 13 series regulars to five, so a lot of the cast who’d been doing either all episodes produced or maybe 10 out of 13, all of a sudden were doing two or three. Kudos to the writers for making it feel like at least some of those cast [members] were in every episode, so it didn’t feel like a different show at all. It still feels like the same show.
Tyler Hoechlin’s Clark Kent/Superman, Michael Bishop’s Jonathan Kent, Alex Garfin’s Jordan Kent and Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor are the only other people were series regular billing alongside Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane this season, with the other familiar cast members only showing up on a guest starring/recurring basis. Tulloch also mentioned that the Superman & Lois production had to deal with Season 4’s episodes primarily only getting 8 days of shooting rather than 10 or 11 like in the previous seasons. In the case of the episode her husband, David Giuntoli, directed, that only got seven days.
Elizabeth Tulloch Doesn’t Want Superman & Lois Fans Getting Mad At James Gunn
Despite Superman & Lois coming to a much earlier end than what the writers had planned, Elizabeth Tulloch later made note in her chat with Katie Sackhoff about how she doesn’t want fans continuing to get mad at James Gunn about what happened. As she sees it, the departure of Superman & Lois stings less with what there is to look forward to from Superman, the first movie in the new DC Universe shared continuity. The actress explained:
It felt like there was a lot of vitriol aimed at James Gunn and Peter Safran, and at the end of the day, it’s like, if you’re a Superman fan, be stoked about the movie and trust in his vision. Because everything I think Gunn has directed has been great, and I think it’s going to be great. Yes, I’m bummed, but I also didn’t go into playing Lois Lane thinking, ‘Well, I’m going to be the last Lois Lane in history.’ You know that at some point, you got to pass the baton to the next one, and that happened a little earlier than I expected, but I think Rachel Brosnahan’s going to be great. David Corenswet’s going to be a great Superman. It’s time to pass the baton.
David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan are joined in the Superman cast by Nicholas Hoult, Skyler Gisondo, Wendell Pierce, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Eli Gathegi and Anthony Carrigan, among others. Although Creature Commandos will officially kick off the DC Universe when it begins its run to Max subscription holders in December, James Gunn and Peter Safran have said they see Superman as the “true beginning” of this franchise. The upcoming DC movie will also reportedly introduce Milly Alcock’s Supergirl ahead of her leading 2026’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
Superman is set for a July 11 release on the 2025 movies schedule, while the first two episodes of Superman & Lois Season 4 premiere Monday, October 7. You can also stream the previous three seasons on Max.
