Clark Kent (Superman & Lois)

Clark Kent, also known by his birth name Kal-El or superhero alias Superman, is a superhero in the 2021 The CW television series Superman & Lois; originally developed as a part of the Arrowverse franchise of television series, first mentioned in the 2015 pilot of Supergirl, based on the character of the same name created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and adapted for television by Glen Winter, Greg Berlanti and Todd Helbing from the previous Arrowverse adaptation of the character by Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Jessica Queller. Clark Kent had been portrayed by Tyler Hoechlin in the Arrowverse since 2016 prior to the development of Superman & Lois as a spin-off of Supergirl, in which Hoechlin reprised his role as co-headliner, initially said to be playing the same incarnation of Superman he had played in Supergirl, before the series was retroactively established to be set in its own continuity, on an Earth other from Earth-Prime, in its second season finale.

As commonly depicted in most media featuring the character, Clark is a humanoid alien refugee from the planet Krypton who lands on Earth, developing superhuman abilities and becoming Superman, Earth's only superhero, while also working as a journalist for the Daily Planet newspaper journal in Metropolis, eventually marrying his colleague Lois Lane and having two children — Jordan and Jonathan — with her. In Superman & Lois, after he and Lois are fired from their jobs at the Planet after it is sold to Clark's secret half-brother Tal-Rho (under the alias of Morgan Edge), and Clark's adoptive human mother then dies of a stroke, the Kent family elect to move back to Clark's childhood home in Smallville. After subsequently realizing that one of their sons have also begun to develop superpowers, Clark and Lois reveal his identity as Superman to them.

Prior to starring in Superman & Lois, Hoechlin played various Supermen living in alternate universes depicted throughout multiple Arrowverse series, such as Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, Batwoman, and Legends of Tomorrow, in particular a version from Earth-38 who has a cousin, Kara Danvers / Supergirl (the main character of Supergirl, in which Hoechlin had first portrayed Superman), a character who does not exist on the as-yet-designated Earth seen in Superman & Lois.

Concept and creation

As one of the most prominent superheroes for DC Comics, Superman had previously been portrayed in TV several times and most prominently in the 2001 to 2011 TV series Smallville, with Tom Welling taking on the role of Superman. The first show about the character came in the 1950s, titled Adventures of Superman, with George Reeves portraying Superman. Two more series came in the 1980s and 1990s, Superboy and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Welling's performance was widely regarded as one of the greatest in the character's history, but after that series' finale, the character was seen only in films for several years.