Yesterday, The CW announced that Superman & Lois was renewed for Season 4, joining fellow returning scripted programming Walker, All American and All American: Homecoming. However, the now-Nexstar-owned channel is implementing various budgets cuts in order to achieve profitability, so Superman & Lois will naturally be impacted by this. In addition to Season 4 being comprised of just 10 episodes, it had also been reported prior to the renewal that its main cast would likely be trimmed down, and now the first of these major character shakeups has been revealed, with Dylan Walsh’s Sam Lane departing the lineup.
Sam, father of Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane and director of the Department of Defense, has been part of Superman & Lois since the show launched in 2021. Sadly, Walsh’s wife, Leslie Borque Walsh shared on Instagram that her husband’s character was “cut due to budget.” Leslie revealed this information while congratulating the “families of S&L for finally getting the update of their fate.” Walsh is also known from shows like Nip/Tuck, Unforgettable and Blue Bloods.
Although Sam Lane is certainly an important character in the overall scheme of Superman & Lois, Season 3 hasn’t utilized that much beyond his usual coordinating with Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman on handling various threats. Some personal plot threads for the character were established, like him building a grandfather/granddaughter relationship with Natalie Irons and his grandson Jordan convincing him to start dating again, but those haven’t been followed up on in recent weeks. So I can’t say I’m too surprised that Sam won’t remain a leading character in Season 4, although it’s unclear is he could still appear in a recurring/guest star capacity, or if he’ll be absent entirely from the next batch of episodes.
With Dylan Walsh being cut and Chad L. Coleman likely not to reprise Bruno Mannheim in Season 4, at least as part of the the main cast, that leaves the show 10 series leads. Obviously we can count on Hoechlin and Tulloch sticking around, and it’s doubtful that Alex Garfin and Michael Bishop won’t be back as Clark and Lois’ sons. I’m also skeptical about Wolé Parks and Tayler Buck won’t respectively reprise John Henry Irons and Natalie given how often we see those two out in the field with Superman, but beyond that, it feels like everyone else could be on the chopping block, i.e. Erik Valdez, Inde Navarrette, Sofia Hasmik and Emmanuelle Chriqui.
We’ll keep you apprised on more Superman & Lois Season 4’s development as more details come in, but there are two episodes left to go in Season 3. Next week's, titled “Injustice,” finally brings in Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor, and I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll see more of him in the fourth season. Peruse our 2023 TV schedule to find out what other shows are on the air/streaming or premiering soon, and remember that you can stream the first two seasons of Superman & Lois with a Max subscription.
