Only a few actors have gotten the chance to play the most iconic superhero in the world, and this fall Tyler Hoechlin will get to join the exclusive club. Superman will be making his debut on Supergirl when it premieres on the CW later in the fall. You'd think the casting process for Kara's famous cousin would have been a long and difficult one, but as it turns out it was surprisingly simple. As Hoechlin himself points out, he didn't even have to audition for the role.
Honestly, it was the strangest thing --- there wasn't an audition. I had a great meeting with [executive producers] Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg [in June]. I had been told that the meeting would have something to do with Supergirl, but nothing really specific. Halfway through, they brought up the idea of introducing Superman to the show and asked if I'd be interested. I said, 'Yeah, absolutely. I'm obviously a fan.' I believe that was on a Monday. On Friday, we got a call with the offer, so it was very quick. It was very flattering, and I wish every job came about that way.
Tyler Hoechlin sat down for an interview with Entertainment Weekly and opened up about donning the classic red cape and "S" crest. It sounds like Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg always knew that they wanted the Teen Wolf actor, and didn't even need to meet with anyone else - which is crazy given how iconic the role is. Around 2,500 actors auditioned for the part of young Han Solo before finally settling on Alden Ehrenreich. It didn't even take a week for the Supergirl producers to make their final decision for Superman; one can certainly see why the whole thing was flattering for Hoechlin.
The quick pace of the casting makes sense, though, given Tyler Hoechlin's attitude toward Superman. The actor further opens up about playing the role to EW, and explains that his first experience with Superman was from watching Dean Cain on Lois & Clark (Cain also plays Kara's adoptive father on Supergirl). Hoechlin's favorite portrayal of the character comes from Christopher Reeve, but he didn't let that inform his own performance. The Superman on Supergirl will stay true to the tradition of Superman, but won't be indicative of anyone else's performance.
It's Superman as I think he was intended to be, which is just an incredible symbol of hope to kids that they can do anything, that they can be good people, and that good people can triumph over evil. You don't have to be dark and brooding and always in this state of masculine toughness. He sits in that very hopeful and optimistic place that Kara tends to be in.
That quote seems to capture Superman more than almost anyone working in the pre-Geoff Johns DCEU. It sounds like Superman is in good hands, and I hope people are excited to see him when Supergirl returns on Monday, October 10, 2016 on the CW.
