You might be thinking that we’ve already got a Superman in Henry Cavill. Or that the handsome CW guy from the previous decade’s Smallville (Tom Welling) made a darn good one. But those thoughts won’t stop Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, the showrunners of CW’s Supergirl (which was formerly on CBS). They’ve chosen Tyler Hoechlin to play Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, in the second season of Supergirl.
Hoechlin, (known to many as the handsome werewolf guy from the CW show Teen Wolf, and to others as the handsome baseball player from Everybody Wants Some!!), will be portraying Superman in the character’s first actual appearance in the show, in the opening two episodes of Season Two. In the show’s past, the character has been seen from a distance, as a blurry sihlouette, or communicating with his Kryptonian cousin Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) via instant messages. This season, he’ll be a recurring character.
Andrew Kreisberg said in a statement “Greg and I have wanted to work with Tyler for ages”, adding that “we are so thrilled and humbled to add another amazing actor to the legacy of this iconic character.”
I’m largely positive about this casting! Hoechlin’s a terrific actor, with more confidence and intensity than I would have associated with Clark Kent, particularly one that inhabits such a sunny, optimistic multiverse as this. Furthermore, I expected an older actor than he, since Kal-El in this show is supposed to have grown into a full adult in the time it took Kara to arrive, and be a fully fledged superhero already. Yet again, he was incredibly fun in Everybody Wants Some!!, at times demonstrating a quieter, more easygoing and unassuming masculinity, which is exactly what Superman needs. Balancing those two different personas will be what distinguishes him. At the very least, the possibility of him interacting with other CW DC characters such as Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is a very sweet prospect.
Watch a clip from Everybody Wants Some!! below:
