Superman & Lois Had Plans For A Major Justice League Villain Before Its Cancellation

The Arrowverse is a vital part of TV history, one that helped bring the expansiveness, the interconnectedness, the weird, and the soapy parts of DC's comic book superhero stories to the small screen. It also featured DC superheroes that had never been adapted in live-action before (like Black Lightning and Batwoman), all the while giving the spotlight to lesser-known comic book villains such as Merlyn, Savitar, and the Eradicator.

Still, when the franchise featured big, iconic villains from the pages of DC Comics, it resulted in some truly thrilling superhero stories — like Reverse-Flash going from battling Flash to founding the Legion of Doom, or how "Superman & Lois" brought in and then reinvented Doomsday. Much like "The Flash" had time to introduce lesser-known rogues while also including some of the titular character's most famous opponents, "Superman & Lois" managed to pack in most of the Man of Steel's greatest enemies in just four seasons — just not exactly the way you'd expect. There was General Zod, except here he was merely a computerized consciousness stored in the Eradicator before he briefly took over Superman's body. There was also Bizarro Superman, who later became Doomsday. And then in season 4, Lex Luthor was reimagined as a man who's more brawn than brains, yet just as terrifying as ever.

As perfect as "Superman & Lois" was — and it is arguably the best Superman story since the 1978 "Superman" — it's hard not to wonder what the series could've done had it been allowed to realize its original seven-season plan, especially when it comes to the show's villains. (We never got to see the series' take on Mister Mxyzptlk, for example.) At the same time, we did get glimpses of the villains that could've factored into future seasons, had they come to pass. In season 4, for instance, "Superman & Lois" introduced Milton Fine (a character who was famously possessed by the supervillain Brainiac in the comics).

Speaking with TV Line, showrunner Todd Helbing confirmed Milton was originally intended to be a bigger part of the show's story. "If we went on for a couple more seasons, we would have really explored Brainiac," he explained. "We would have done more cool, traditional Brainiac stuff with him."

Even more exciting, Helbing revealed that the "Superman & Lois" writers had set their sights on eventually bringing in the greatest villain of the DC Comics universe to serve as the show's ultimate big bad: Darkseid.

Darkseid is the ultimate evil of the DC Comics universe, a formidable villain who is as strong as — if not stronger than — Superman (although he could've easily become a Marvel Comics villain instead). He makes perfect sense as a sort of final boss for "Superman & Lois," especially when season 4 had already given us an adaptation of the "Death of Superman" comic book arc.

"There's also a way to lead up to Darkseid that we had talked about," Helbing added. "I don't know if DC would have given us permission to use Darkseid, but we would have pitched the hell out of it to try to get it. That would have been a lot of fun."

First of all, Brainiac would have been a great idea. Milton had already proven himself a formidable opponent in season 4; he was a crafty villain who could outmaneuver Superman's allies, and whose strategy could've allowed him to match Superman's strength. The Brainiac character has proven himself well-suited for live-action, too, with appearances everywhere from "Smallville" to "Krypton."

Darkseid, however, is definitely an ambitious choice. After all, the character has never really been properly adapted in live-action before, save for his brief appearance in "Zack Snyder's Justice League" (which was originally released direct-to-streaming). Even when "Smallville" brought in a version of the character, he was basically a cloud of smoke. It would have been fascinating to see "Superman & Lois" give Darkseid a try, especially given he'd definitely require a bigger team to defeat him than just Superman alone.

Now that "Superman & Lois" has come to an end, we're left with "My Adventures With Superman" as the sole Man of Steel project on TV at the moment. Given that James Gunn is taking the character back into the big screen next year as part of his DC Universe relaunch, it's unlikely he'll be returning to television in live-action anytime soon, either.

"Superman & Lois" is streaming in its entirety on the CW app.