WARNING: This article includes SPOILERS from Superman & Lois season 4, episode 3.Lex Luthor actor Michael Cudlitz previews what the Superman & Lois season 4 cast, his war against Lois Lane, her kids, and their allies took an even darker turn in this week's episode.
In Superman & Lois season 4, episode 3, General Sam Lane attempts to find a way to bring the Man of Steel back from the dead after Lex destroys the hero's heart. While Sam finds the ultimate solution, it also comes with a very dire price after getting taken out by Doomsday, but not before making sure his own heart has the serum that was used to bring back Bizarro. As Lex manages to get another beloved character killed, the episode ends with Superman waking up in the Fortress of Solitude, with Sam's heart now running through him.
Superman & Lois Season 4 Finally Gave Me The Storyline I’d Given Up On Ever Happening After 3 Years
After years of theories and hopes being seemingly crushed, Superman & Lois has finally brought a big twist I'd given up on ever actually happening.
Continuing ScreenRant's extensive interview with Cudlitz, the DC TV actor broke down the darker acts of Lex in Superman & Lois season 4 while looking ahead to what is coming up in the remaining episodes. As things are leading up to the Superman & Lois series finale, Cudlitz also looked back on building his relationships with the show's fellow actors, the experience of getting to direct one of the final episodes of season 4, and whether or not Lex will get to have a proper showdown with Superman. Cudlitz also looks at what he is adding to Lex's larger media legacy while also teasing what is next for the actor after the series.
Michael Cudlitz Previews Lex Luthor's War In Superman & Lois Season 4
Screen Rant: The idea that he would pit Jordan and Lois against each other with the whole phone call thing, when you read all these scripts, what threw you off the most, in a good way? He's petty to a degree, but in his mind, it's justified, but what reactions did you have to some of the things that he's been causing so far?
Michael Cudlitz: I loved it, and he says it to Lois, 'You started it, you brought the kids into this. You messed with my daughter. First thing, why would I not mess with your children? You took away my daughter. You took her away for 17 years.'
We find out that the lovely Elizabeth Henstridge is playing your daughter, I will try to tread lightly, but what are the chances that we may see you and her work together this season?
Michael Cudlitz: Look, anything's possible, so far as me with my younger daughter. But like I said that storytelling device is mostly with the flashback, so she would be younger.
Michael Cudlitz On Directing Superman & Lois Season 4, Episode 8
I hear that you got to direct the season, I believe it's episode 8 - what was it like getting behind the camera on this particular show and is there anything you can tease? Because it's one of the final three episodes!
Michael Cudlitz: It was a great experience, the cast was fantastic, and really welcomed me the crew as well. I had been up there for seven episodes already - well nine, I guess, if you include last year - I got pretty tight with the crew and the cast. By then, it was very easy, relationship wise, and [I] had a wonderful time. The episode is a really, really strong episode from a writing standpoint and I had a wonderful time directing it. I'm really proud of it, I think the fans are going to love it, [there is] a lot of cool stuff in the episode.
Do you have a particular personal favorite that you are really excited about that you want the fans to look out for as we go further into the final season?
Michael Cudlitz: There's some really, really cool stuff that happens in in episode 6 that, I think, from a fan stand point is going to be something that they've never, ever seen before, and that they've wanted to see.
Michael Cudlitz On Potential Showdowns Between Superman & Lex In Season 4
We know, at some point, Superman has to come back to life, and, at some point, he and Lex gotta duke it out. What are the chances that you and Tyler may have shot some fist-to-fist fights throughout the season?
Michael Cudlitz: I would have loved that...that would have been awesome.
Michael Cudlitz On Building Dynamic With Superman & Lois' Tyler Hoechlin & Bitsie Tulloch\
"I had a wonderful time working with Tyler... He's incredibly, incredibly giving."
I'm hoping we could see something like that - maybe even you fighting the kids. Because if he's willing to go after the kids this much, I'm sure he would have no problems fighting teenagers.
Michael Cudlitz: All I'll say about that is I had a wonderful time working with Tyler, the scenes with him were fantastic. He's incredibly, incredibly giving. Same thing with Bitsie, honestly, all of them. But I loved working with Tyler. And I don't know why I think, because I think, as an actor, you come into a show, and it's a really big show, he's the lead guy. He's just a good looking guy, and he's playing Superman. I didn't expect him to give me the time of day, honestly, and that's okay. But I guess even as actors, we are also fans, and we understand how the structure can be sometimes. I had very low expectations of him being incredibly personable or necessarily even kind to me, I didn't necessarily expect anything from it. I was like, 'The dude's Superman, let him do his thing,' and it could not have been further from what I experienced.
I think that's why I had such an appreciation for it, because he just literally smashed my expectations, which were obviously all wrong, so a lesson to myself, as always, and I hope we all are open to these lessons throughout our lives. Don't judge something by what you think something's going to be. Judge it by what the actual experience is. Because of that, I have this affinity to him that I loved working with him, and I think we did some really, really great stuff. These two iconic characters mix up in a way that we've never seen before. It's interesting to see the restraint that Superman has because he is Superman, and there are certain things that he won't do, which gives Lex incredible flexibility and leeway in many ways. So it's fun, it's been really, really a great experience, yeah and then my stuff with Bitsie, all the conflict stuff has just been super fun,
I when we first saw in season 3 - Lex Luthor is someone who can absolutely scare the living crap out of me. But just seeing how full of anger he was, I how Bitsie talked about it at Comic-Con this is this year when you guys were gonna do the scene for the first time, and she said something in the form of, "Oh, I heard Michael thought, 'I don't think Bitsie doesn't really like me,' and I was like 'No, I was just scared. I was just scared by his performance,'" I the night the episode aired, and we were all on Twitter, just seeing like, this is not a Lex we have seen before.
Michael Cudlitz: Working with Bitsie the first time, it was one of the first times I had performed as Lex, so I had not auditioned. Todd and Brent [Fletcher] were not up in Canada. I'm working with a guest director, performing for the first time as Lex Luthor with basically no safety net. This was my interpretation of what I was reading and what I wanted to do, and I thought, 'Okay, well it's written this way. We've talked about it. I'm going for it. I hope this is what they were hoping for, because this is what I want to do,' and we started rehearsing the scene, and Bitsie just shut down for me, and I wouldn't make eye in between and after rehearsal. When we started shooting, she went into sit where her chair was and was not connecting at all and I'm just thinking, 'Oh my gosh, the lead of the show hates what I'm doing on day one, [she] literally won't look at me. She hates it so much.' So I checked in with the director, and I go, 'I feel strong about this.'
And he's like, 'Dude, no, keep going,' I go 'Alright...I don't know, but I'm committing to this.' And then I finished up and saw her a day or two later, and she came up and gave me a big hug, [going] like, 'Oh my god, so incredible working with you the other night!' I said, 'I thought you hated me!' I was talking to my wife at some point during the evening, and I was like, 'I think Bitsie has a problem with what I'm doing!' [laughs] but I'm glad I stuck with what I was doing, and I'm glad we're doing what we wanted to do, and I hope the fans respond to it.
I know it's a tough fan base. It's a fan base, at times, that has issues with itself. We have our Snyder-Superman [fans] and everyone else, and then we have our people who love their Lexes - Jon Cryer and Michael Rosenbaum and Gene Hackman, I'm a fan of all of them as well. So I hope everybody just gives it a chance. We're doing something different, and we're really proud of it, and I'm just happy to be along for the ride.
Michael Cudlitz On The Mystery Box In Superman & Lois Season 4 Premiere & Series Finale
One of the big pieces we get in the premiere that we get seeds of in later episodes, there's this box that you and Amanda seem very, very obsessed with. What can you elaborate on this? Why should we be worried about this? If they care this much about this, I thought we, as the audience, need to be worried.
Michael Cudlitz: Well, that is the epitome of the long format. This is why we tune in every week. It's pretty important...yeah, I hope you guys enjoy the season!
Are you happy with the way wherever your Lex goes towards the end of the series? What can you speak to that? Are you thrilled about what people are gonna get to see?
Michael Cudlitz: I'm thrilled with where we went. I feel the finale is - as someone who became a fan of the show - wonderfully wraps up the entire story that we're telling. An incredible amount of fan service is done to all of these characters and the fans, so no one feels left out. Everyone has an incredibly satisfying arc and resolution in the show, plus it's [an] incredibly emotional arc for the entire series, not just the individual characters, the family, as to where they go on the journey, and where the boys wind up in their relationship with their dad, mom and with everyone else in the show.
I couldn't be happier with the show, and could not be happier with what they did with, I feel, an incredibly detailed, very specific, "What If...?" story with Lex. Starting from what if Lex was his driving force was pain from his loss of his daughter. How would that resolve, and how would that collide into the world of Superman & Lois and what would/could be the resolution of that? Based on everything we know, and wonderfully tying in the comics and the suit, which we've seen in the trailer, we know that's coming: how do we get back to the Lex that is now from the Lex we started with who was this prisoner for 17 years and became who he had to become to survive in prison. How does he reestablish himself back in the world and take over the life that he had prior?
Michael Cudlitz On A Potential Return To The Walking Dead Universe
Because we've seen The Walking Dead universe really continue, even after the main series came to an end with spinoffs focusing on a lot of beloved characters. Despite your character being dead, would you still be interested in leading a limited series within The Walking Dead universe with Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita, where they were all still together? In your opinion, do you feel there's still more to tell with that character despite his death?
Michael Cudlitz: Yeah, 100%. We've talked about this before - I love that world. I had a great time in it. I don't think I've had as much fun on a set prior or since. It was a wonderful world to be part of and there was talk, at one point, about something with The Walking Dead universe. The Tales of The Walking Dead, I think they called it. They did six episodes of that where it was almost like a Black Mirror-type, alternate universe thing. I think one of the scripts they had - and still have, - is sort of an Abraham origin story, and they've talked about that prior. If they came to me with that, and the timing of everything worked out, absolutely. I love those guys, I had a wonderful time doing it.
Michael Cudlitz On What Is Next After Superman & Lois Season 4
"Let me ask you a question, were you satisfied? Are you a big Superman fan?"
Where can fans see you next that you are working on that you can talk about?
Michael Cudlitz: I got a couple things in development that I can't really talk about right now, but we've got a short film that I directed and that my wife wrote, that is going to be in Tucson, Arizona, [between] October 22nd-23rd at the Wild Bunch Film Festival. We just screened it at the Burbank International Film Festival, so we did a short that we're really proud of. It's sort of a Western. Jamie McShane is our lead, who I know from Southland. So next year, I got some cool stuff coming, but this is what we're hitting on now, which is Superman & Lois.
Let me ask you a question, were you satisfied? Are you a big Superman fan?
Of course, Superman is one of my all-time favorite superheroes, and yes, I loved seeing these three episodes to the point where I needed to get to the fourth one already because of what was happening. You are amazing as Lex, and I cannot wait to see what else that you're cooking for this family!
Michael Cudlitz: You are gonna love the season then, you are going to love this season!
Is this a genre you would maybe want to revisit down the line? There's always more DC and Marvel waiting out there.
Michael Cudlitz: I chase story and cool characters, so I'm open for anything!
More About Superman & Lois Season 4
Season four of SUPERMAN & LOIS picks up right where last season left off: with Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and Luthor’s monster locked in a ferocious, moon-wrecking battle, as Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) fights for his life against the seemingly unstoppable creature. Back on the ground, General Lane (guest star Dylan Walsh) struggles to stay alive after being kidnapped by Luthor’s henchmen, while Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch), Jordan (Alex Garfin), and Jonathan (Michael Bishop) race against time to rescue him. But standing in their way is Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) himself, who has permanently moved to Smallville as the next step in his malicious plan to destroy Lois Lane. Meanwhile, Lana Lang (guest star Emanuelle Chriqui) uses her position as Mayor to fight back against Luthor’s schemes, a move which puts her in the sights of the most dangerous man in the world and threatens everything she holds dear.
This includes her relationship with John Henry Irons (guest star Wolé Parks), who must put his Ironworks plans on hold and re the DOD, now that General Lane is missing. But they aren’t the only duo in trouble, as Chrissy Beppo (guest star Sofia Hasmik) and Kyle Cushing (guest star Eric Valdez) face an uphill battle of their own, with countless roadblocks that threaten to ruin their future together. Amid all the chaos, Sarah Cortez (guest star Inde Navarette) and Natalie Irons (guest star Tayler Buck) also the fight against Luthor, while both facing impossible decisions about their paths in life. And as Clark’s battle with the terrifying monster continues, Lois, her boys, and the world must face an unthinkable possibility: what if Superman never returns?
Check out our other interviews with more Superman & Lois cast :
- Wolé Parks (John Henry Irons/Steel)
- Chad Coleman (Bruno Mannheim)
- Daya Vaidya (Peia Mannheim/Onomatopoeia)
- Michael Cudlitz (Lex Luthor)
Superman & Lois season 4 airs new episodes on Monday nights at 8/7c on The CW.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Based on the characters from DC Comics, Superman & Lois follows Clark Kent and Lois Lane, attempting to live a quiet life in Smallville with their twin sons Jonathan and Jordan. Unfortunately for the couple, their lives continue to be effected by Clark's superhero identity and powers. Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch star as Clark and Lois, with Jordan Elsass and Alex Garfin portraying the couple's sons.
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Prime Video
