I Still Wish We’d Gotten To See One Of The Coolest Live-Action Superman Costume Decisions For Longer Than 1 Minute

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Looking back, I can"t help but wish we"d gotten to see one of the coolest costume decisions in a live-action Superman show for longer than 2 short scenes and a collective runtime of just under a minute. Superman"s live-action history is one of the most considerable in superhero history, with him and Batman squaring off to be the DC hero who"s had the most on-screen movie time. However, when it comes to the matter of TV series, the Man of Steel easily takes the crown from his brooding ally, as there have been a far greater range of live-action Superman shows starring the Kryptonian over the years.
With that said, a wider range of releases has also meant a wider range of successes and failures for the iconic DC superhero in almost every aspect of the character"s installments, including that of the costumes that appear within them - something that"s been highlighted as a crucial matter once more by the recent discussions revolving around the 2025 DCU Superman movie and its own iterations of both Superman himself and several other iconic heroes. This makes it all the more notable that one of the most exciting suit decision made by a Superman release used them on-screen for only roughly 40 seconds.
Superman & Lois' Superboy Suits Appeared Just As The Show Ended

Superman & Lois played with the idea of both of the titular couple"s children becoming superheroes in their own right as the show progressed. While this was firstly and most transparently after Jordan gained his powers in the first episode of the entire series - meaning the show had far more time to explore his journey with honing his abilities and coming to terms with what they really meant for him and his life - his brother Jonathan later got his own Kryptonian skillset a way into the final season of Superman & Lois, meaning the series ended with both of of Clark"s kids becoming superheroes like their dad.
In fact, Superman & Lois season 4, episode 10 - the finale of the story - even lets both Superboys suit up in the final chapter, as they"re shown getting their own superhero costumes in the Fortress of Solitude, and then flying alongside Superman and fellow heroes Steel and Starlight as the show starts to explain what takes place in the years after the main events the narrative has focused on up until this point. It"s a nice way to nod to the off-screen hero stories of the two characters, and a welcome look at some suits for heroes that are notoriously neglected in live-action - but it"s not without its flaws.
Superman & Lois season 4, episode 10 released December 2, 2024.
As it stands, the sequence does also highlight one shame of the series ending with season 4, as instead of getting to see the upcoming heroes in their early days as bona fide costumed successors to Superman, we ultimately get a quick scene momentarily showing this, and then a bit of time seeing Clark and Lois interact with the grown up versions of their children after a timeskip. After so much buildup, this does feel a little like a waste, with Jordan actor Alex Garfin having spent 3 years in the role to only get a few moments showing him as a full dedicated hero with the crest and costume after all that time.
Why Jordan & Jonathan's Superboy Suits Only Appear So Briefly Close While Superman & Lois dedicates a lot of time to Jordan and Jonathan"s respective stories, this is largely in terms of exploring the family dynamics between them, their parents, and their grandfather, or otherwise in terms of them growing as people - something that naturally does involve showing both gaining their powers, but that doesn"t solely revolve around this idea. Since the focus of the show is on looking at what a family where the majority of its members get superhuman abilities might be like versus on them being outright superheroes, it does make sense the suits were only brought in later on.
It"s also worth noting that Superman & Lois season 4 seemingly wasn"t always planned to be the final season of the show, with the series being cut short and plans thus being revised to make the fourth season the last chapter of the story. According to Entertainment Weekly, there were plans for Superman & Lois to run for as long as seven seasons, which would have meant some substantial story changes for the DC release - and would"ve meant the arc of the boys becoming heroes thus had to also be made far briefer with far less space to explore things that weren"t imperative to the narrative.
Finally, it stands to reason the show didn"t need the suits and the prospective costs of things like digital editing them in several episodes from a financial perspective. Given characters like Doomsday and the dramatic fights of the series already placed certain monetary requirements on the series, having Jordan and Jonathan don costumes they didn"t strictly need for their stories until the finale may have posed a needless financial sacrifice to the series, which could have negatively impacted other aspects of it.
Superman & Lois' Superboy Suit Timing Means A Spinoff Could Make Even More Sense Close The ending of Superman & Lois was an emotional sendoff to the series and its cast, but the nature of its flashforward sequence means we don"t see much of the most important years of Jordan and Jonathan"s lives, though the years that follow the main events of the episode are certainly teased to be interesting given the pair get their own suits seemingly not long after the last fights with Doomsday and Lex Luthor. Instead, the show races ahead in order to show Clark Kent and Lois Lane"s last days, complete with adult Jordan and Jonathan and their own partners and children.
Given the notable gap this leaves, the one Superman & Lois spinoff that"s been talked about by the cast as a possibility for some time seems to hold all the more weight. In December 2024, Alex Garfin discussed this story idea in an interview with ScreenRant, stating that "I was coming up with an idea for a spin-off at one point when Jordan and Jonathan are finally going to "college." The college turns out to be set up by the DoD, and it"s this place that the DoD is kind of keeping all these super-kids prisoner... I would love to make that show a reality one of these days, I really would."
Lois Lane actor Elizabeth Tulloch also commented on this spinoff idea in an interview with ScreenRant"s Joe Deckelmeier at the Multicon LA Wildfire Benefit in February 2025, discussing how it would be interesting to get to see how the duo"s lives unfolded after season 4. Tulloch mentioned, "Given their age, they [could tackle] college. What would college be like for them? Obviously, they"re public figures because they were sort of outed, so to speak, as superheroes... Yeah, never say never."
With such a promising chapter of the story entirely unexplored - but teased - it seems like the Superman spinoff idea could hold real promise as a way to continue the franchise if DC were so willing. The DCU has given the greenlight to "Elseworld" releases - that is, releases like The Batman, that are in their own alternate universe to the mainline DC Universe timeline that"s currently starting up - this idea certainly isn"t impossible, and indeed could help ensure further enthusiasm for the new era of DC"s on-screen releases by giving fans another look at Superman & Lois" fascinating world.

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