Superman & Lois return to Smallville in epic new trailer
You can always come home again, even if you're the Man of Steel.
EW is exclusively debuting a new trailer for Superman & Lois, starring Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch as the titular couple. Yes, the CW released a teaser for the forthcoming drama a few weeks ago, but this is the spot contains approximately 95 percent more footage and gives a better sense of what you can expect from the show. While the 60-second, Superman-focused promo tells you the series hails from the creators of The Flash, the glossy shots of open midwestern landscapes, purposefully muted colors, and overall epic tone make it look and feel unlike the aforementioned speedy series or the network's other bright, technicolor superhero programs (Certain moments also evoke both Man of Steel and Superman Returns).
Presumably picking up after the Arrowverse's massive "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover, Superman & Lois follows Clark Kent (Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Tulloch) as they relocate from Metropolis to Smallville with their anxious teenage sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alexander Garfin) and contend with the pressures of being working parents. Well, the working part is up in the air; a shot of the worried duo walking through the Daily Planet is paired with a voiceover of Lois saying "lost jobs," implying that the show's fictional media industry might be facing the same hardships as the real one. (Yes, this moment stressed us out!) Either way, the simple life one hopes to cultivate in a small Kansas town definitely eludes them, as evidenced by Clark finally telling his kids he's Superman, General Sam Lane's (Dylan Walsh) presence, and Superman fighting a mysterious foe in black armor (Is that Wol?? Parks' "mysterious stranger"?)
"You've got the weight of the world on your shoulders," Clark's high school sweetheart Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui) tells him at a cookout in the promo.
"Really wish I could get drunk sometimes," Clark mutters to himself as she walks away.
With the exception of the DCEU movies, Superman adaptations tend to be visually vibrant, because he is the Man of Tomorrow after all; however, the trailer's faded colors hint that Clark's hometown has fallen on hard times and isn't as idyllic as it once was or as depicted on Smallville, which concluded its historic run a decade ago this May.
"The story of Superman has taken place in Metropolis for very long, obviously there was a Smallville series," said showrunner/executive producer Todd Helbing during the show's DC FanDome panel in September. "But I came from a small town in the midwest. And the town that I grew up in had a business leave that sort of affected everybody in the town, and the town started to slowly dry up. It felt very current with recent years after 2008. So we wanted to tell a story where you have the parents after this tragic event happens move back to Smallville and find that it's easier to raise kids maybe in a place where life isn't so hectic as it is in Metropolis."
Watch the trailer above.
Superman & Lois launches Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. with a 90-minute series premiere, followed by a Superman & Lois: Legacy of Hope special, on The CW.
(Video provided by The CW)
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