Smallville comparisons were inevitable for Superman & Lois. The marketing for its 2021 debut wasn’t shy about the similarities. Both CW shows swapped the DC icon’s typical Metropolis skylines and Daily Planet to-dos, trading them for Kansas cornfields and family melodrama. At a glance, it could seem that, aside from their casts, only the age difference separated Smallville, Clark Kent’s coming-of-age story, from Superman & Lois, which sees him and Lois Lane as parents to coming-of-age kids of their own. Yet, these timelines — Smallville premiered 20 years before Superman & Lois and ended with Lois and Clark’s wedding, after all — could be convincingly aligned for most audiences.

So, are Smallville and Superman & Lois connected? In more ways than one: yes. Though not a literal sequel to Smallville, the shared DNA and canonical ties require a full exploration into Superman & Lois‘ shared DNA with its foundational spiritual successor. This opens up a Pandora’s box of continuity, TV history, and Superman lore. Dive into it all below.

Superman TV Shows Take Flight From Opposite Directions

Different Eras Demand Different Heroes

Smallville spent its decades-worth of hour-long episodes having its Clark Kent stumble through superhero puberty. The series waited nearly half its 10-season run to introduce Lois to the fold (played brilliantly by Erica Durance), not to mention the withholding of Welling’s Superman suit until the show’s final moments. Superman & Lois drops audiences into a world already saved aplenty by Superman. Despite spiritual similarities, this obvious difference contrasts the two shows via more than timelines. In many respects, Hoechlin’s Superman performance plays more like Jon Schneider’s Jon Kent than Welling’s Clark, and through this take on the eponymous character as a parent to his sons, Jordan and, appropriately, Jon, Superman & Lois makes it immediately clear: it’s a similar small-town story, seen through a completely different lens.

In this way, the role reversal serves as an evolution alongside the Smallville audience. Sure, the canons are only indirectly tethered to one another, but The CW, assumably, knew what it was doing greenlighting a series like Superman & Lois at the time it did. The once-teens who fondly watched Clark Kent, as played by Tom Welling, go through trial and tribulations alongside his parents are now parents themselves— watching a Superman dealing with struggles they recognize pings nostalgia and plucks the heartstrings in equal measure.

Smallville Set Foundation for Superman & Lois’ Modern Family

The Formative Superhero Series Has an Undeniable Influence on Superman & Lois

While the two shows are separated by a couple of decades both in real-world and narrative time—and in a multiverse—Smallville‘s impact on Superman & Lois is undeniable. By not playing coy with some iconic Smallville touchstones, Superman & Lois was able to explore thematic through-lines established in its predecessor. It plays like a continuation of concepts, just not literal canon.

With such rich, shared source material, many of Smallville‘s most beloved supporting characters find successors in Superman & Lois interpretation of Clark’s hometown. Lana Lang, Clark’s high school love interest in Smallville‘s earlier seasons, is a neighborhood presence and recurring staple in the more recent series. The mother of Sarah Cushing, classmate and paramour to Jordan, Lana and Clark see their childhood, and, in turn, Smallville‘s romance repeats itself in their children. Also noteworthy, Lana’s marriage to Kyle Cushing, a firefighter struggling with alcoholism and a temper problem, echoes Smallville‘s Whitney Fordham, Lana’s boyfriend for the first few seasons.

The CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths Changed Everything

When Clarks Collide

While Tom Welling’s retired Clark Kent never crossed paths with Tyler Hoechlin’s active Superman, both shared scenes with key Arrowverse figures during The CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths event. Welling’s Clark, who chose family over heroics and ditched his powers entirely, interacted with figures like The Flash’s Iris (Candice Patton), and Supergirl’s Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer). Most crucially, the official canon crossover between Superman & Lois and Smallville occurs in this sequence when Bitsie Holloch’s Lois—Superman & Lois‘ title character. Unlikely encounters, sure, yet, meanwhile, Hoechlin’s Superman found himself in perhaps the most unexpected, meta team-up of all – fighting alongside Brandon Routh’s resurrected Superman Returns iteration (or at least his doppelgänger).

The event did more than just connect some dots across the multiverse – it showed off the Superman myth’s flexibility— unlike the cringe-worthy “cameos” in the DCEU The Flash flop. Welling’s completed Superman Journey, Hoechlin’s harrowing fatherhood-crime-fighter balancing act, and Routh’s unexpected, Kingdom Come-coded return to the character all coexisted with ease and exhilarating results.

Tyler Hoechlin and Tom Welling’s Close-But-No-Cigar Connections

A Super-Snub For Superman Fans

The so-close-but-yet-so-far-away Crisis on Infinite Earths appearance by Tom Welling satisfied most fans, but the missed opportunity to have him cross paths with Tyler Hoechlin was a bitter pill to swallow for longtime viewers of both actor’s shows. Though kept separate, creative hopes for a Smallville crossover weren’t completely absent while Superman & Lois was on the air. Todd Helbing, a producer on Superman & Lois and former writer for Smallville, voiced his enthusiasm for a more direct crossover in a Looper interview.

“I love what they did with Tom Welling and Erica, that they were married, and that farm is so iconic…I would love to see either of those two on our show. I’m not sure how we would fit them in yet, but that would be a lot of fun.” — Superman & Lois Producer’s 2019 Comments on a potential crossover with Smallville.

Reflecting on Welling and Durance’s appearances in Crisis, Helbing shared his ultimately unfulfilled hope to incorporate them in Superman & Lois. “I love what they did with Tom Welling and Erica, that they were married, and that farm is so iconic,” commented Helbing in the Crisis fallout, “I would love to see either of those two on our show. I’m not sure how we would fit them in yet, but that would be a lot of fun.” Helbing also heralded Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor performance from Smallville‘s heyday, saying, “He is fantastic. He was such an awesome Lex.” Depending on the fan, Helbing’s hopes for Smallville guest stars could either comfort or intensify frustrations over it never happening.

Superman & Lois and Smallville Tell Two Different, Underrated Superman Stories

Spiritual Siblings, Not Sequels

The connective tissue between Smallville and Superman & Lois reveals something fascinating about Superman’s staying power. Canon kin may be few and far between, but the commonalities speak to why Superman endures. The basic ingredients are identical: Kansas farm life, superpowers, family dynamics, but the results produce something entirely separate. Yet, most impressively, they each still demonstrate equal reverence for Superman’s mythology.

Superman & Lois and Smallville may occupy different corners of the multiverse, but each shows understanding and sensitivity towards Superman’s real strength: his humanity, his capacity for love, and hope. Whether parenting a child through their super-puberty or going through his own, Clark’s stories in both CW series are not about the spectacle; it’s about the quiet and tender moments shared between the people he cares most about.