The Future of the Arrowverse Lies Within 'Superman & Lois' — or Does It?

After dominating the small screen for over a decade, the Arrowverse has come to an end — or has it? Following the series finale of The Flash in May 2023, there's only one superhero drama remaining on The CW: Superman & Lois.

Wait, are we sure it's part of the bigger picture? The Tyler Hoechlin-led series seemed to be its own entity — but did we miss something important? Is Superman & Lois actually in the Arrowverse? Read on to find out!

If you recall, the Season 2 finale officially explained where Superman & Lois fits in the Arrowverse — it's not in it! The episode, titled "Waiting for Superman," revealed that Superman is Earth's greatest and only hero.

"I've been working for the DOD for a long time," Sam (Dylan Walsh) told Jonathan and Jordan. "I've seen things you would not believe — glimpses of other worlds and the leagues of superheroes they have on them. And even though we only have your father on this planet, thank God that we do because he's the finest of any Earth."

Following the finale, showrunner Todd Helbing spoke with Entertainment Weekly and explained further. He said he didn't know if he would "specifically define it as not in the Arrowverse," adding, "Maybe it's not that binary. It's more that the events in our show are not taking place on the same Earth as the current Arrowverse."

Todd also noted that the original intent was for Superman & Lois to be part of the Arrowverse: "In the original [pilot], there were a lot of references to Crisis, and there was a Flash mention," he told the outlet.

"But you know, then the pandemic hit, and things changed, and we couldn't do a crossover with Batwoman, and all of these references to Crisis through the pilot rewriting phase got stripped out just to make everything a little bit more clear for a broader audience," Todd said.

He continued, "Then at some point in Season 1, I had a conversation with DC, and we clearly wanted to put our own stamp on the show and our take on the Superman mythology. The original intent was to be part of the Arrowverse, but the further along we got and now, unfortunately, with the other shows being off the air, it just felt like the best decision was to have our Superman & Lois not be on the same Earth as the Arrowverse."

Regarding the decision to keep Superman & Lois out of the Arrowverse, Todd felt conflicted — and we don't blame him! Although it makes the show easier, he said the disconnect is pretty sad.

"In some ways, it's easier to not be associated with the other shows in such an intimate way, because you don't have to track everything," he explained. "You can kind of just concentrate on your characters and put 100 percent of your focus into the show that you're trying to make."

However, as previously stated, Todd also found it sad "because clearly doing all the crossovers are a huge reward for fans and everybody that's tuned in for years. And that stuff is tremendously fun to work on and satisfying. But there's not seven, eight shows on the air right now so that in itself is a much bigger challenge to do stuff like that."

"I don't know, it's conflicting, for sure," he added.

New episodes of Superman & Lois air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.