Crisis on Infinite Earths will feature more than three Supermen, with a fourth one having surfaced in new footage. The 5-hour Arrowverse crossover, which will be The CW’s biggest event ever, is bringing heroes together across the Multiverse and past DC TV history. With the Man of Steel, the event is bringing together not one, but three actors playing Superman. Tyler Hoechlin, the current Man of Tomorrow on The CW, will be joined by Legends of Tomorrow star Brandon Routh reprising his version from Superman Returns, which will be inspired by Kingdom Come. The Super-presence doesn’t stop there, as Tom Welling will reprise his incarnation from Smallville for the first time since the series finale in May 2011.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
With the fate of the Multiverse at stake, having three Men of Steel will be needed. However, Arrowverse producer Marc Guggenheim has promised that there’re still many surprises that have yet to be revealed. The mega-event may have just revealed one of those secrets as a fourth Superman debuted in a recent trailer, but with a twist. In a quick shot, Kal-El is seen in news footage with a devastated Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) crying over his dead body with the headline “Lex Luthor Kills Man of Steel.” The image is reminiscent of one of the iconic panels from the 1993 The Death of Superman storyline. Given that Earth-38’s Clark Kent is still alive; the only logical explanation for the dead Superman is that it’s a new doppelganger.
A previous TV spot teased a shredded Superman cape which is now confirmed to belong to the newly revealed version seen in the trailer. While the actor’s identity is hard to make out from the footage, this is seemingly a new Superman that viewers have never met before. It’s possible, however, that Hoechlin is playing another world’s Man of Steel. With the storyline exploring multiple realities, the shot is most likely from a new Earth with its own Superman and Lois. How Lex (Jon Cryer) specifically kills this version of the iconic DC hero remains to be seen. Supergirl recently revealed that Lex got recruited by the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) to help save the Multiverse.
However, the trailer may suggest that another Lex killed this Superman revealed in the footage. It wouldn’t be surprising if Cryer is playing more than one version of Superman’s greatest enemy. With Routh playing both The Atom and Superman, and Smallville’s Erica Durance as both Lois Lane and Kara’s (Melissa Benoist) mother Alura, Cryer pulling double-duty isn’t out of the question. Another promo did reveal that one of the worlds to be destroyed is Earth-73, which could hypothetically be the Earth where this news shot is coming from. With Crisis on Infinite Earths being the Arrowverse’s most ambitious storyline of all time, major character deaths are to be expected.
Whether it’s through any of the current principal characters, or Multiverse versions of them, there’s no doubt about Crisis on Infinite Earths having big consequences. The reveal that a Superman has fallen in another universe is a proper reminder that the stakes are more real than ever before. The 12-issue series by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez that the crossover is based on had several characters die in the 1985 event. For the TV adaptation, The CW is already foreshadowing, through this newest trailer that viewers should be prepared for Crisis on Infinite Earths to come with some gut-punching moments, including the fall of the fourth revealed Superman.
