SUPERGIRL’s Superman Will Definitely Be More “Traditional”

If you’re The CW, and you want to ensure a bump in viewership for Supergirl’s second season, you play the Superman card. He was merely a silhouette, a mostly off-screen entity that would quickly depart after arriving in the nick of time, or send glowing affirmations to struggling relatives via instant messenger. But now, to truly give Supergirl Season 2 the proper kick-off, we’re getting a fully-formed, fully realized, hanging-around-long-enough-to-talk-family-and-throw-devastating-punches Superman portrayed by actor Tyler Hoechlin. But…what kind of Superman are we getting? Is this another brooding iteration currently milling about the DCCU, or are we getting a slightly more approachable, warmer Man of Steel? While attending the CW portion of the TCA Summer Press Tour, our good friends at Collider asked producer Andrew Kreisberg those very questions about Supergirl’s Superman, and thankfully, he answered thusly.

“I think our take on him is probably something a little bit more traditional. There’s certainly a little bit of the “Aw shucks” about him, but he’s been Superman for a while, so there’s a savviness about him as Superman and as Clark. If he’s been Superman for 12 years, that also means that he’s been Clark Kent for 12 years. He knows how to interview somebody. He knows how to get a story out of someone. As always, with any of these things, we’re never doing a direct adaptation of a specific comic book. We cherry pick the best parts and things that we love. So, there’s a little bit of the Christopher Reeve Superman in there, a healthy dose of the Superman animated series, which we’re huge fans of, a little bit of Lois & Clark, a little George Reeves, and a little Super Friends.

And as far as finding the right guy, as soon as we said we were going to do Superman, Greg [Berlanti] mentioned Tyler [Hoechlin]. We’ve been fans of his for years, and when we sat down with him, he is Superman. Not just with the looks, but he’s such a good guy, such a nice guy, and he’s so open and forthright and brimming with life. You just feel better when you’re around him, which I think is part of the secret of Superman. He is that ideal, but not in an unattainable way. Superman should make you feel like you can do anything, even though he’s the one that can do anything. And Tyler just had all that in spades. So, it was less a question of us reaching out. It was more a question of hoping he would say yes. After Tyler, I’m not sure what we would have done.”

Personally, I’m a fan of Henry Cavill’s Superman. I think if the script allowed it, he could certainly show up at a children’s hospital and not scare everyone to death. Thoughts?