The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Superman and Lois.

The recent season 2 finale of The CW's Superman and Lois had plenty of standout moments, but arguably some of the most surprising were a shocking revelation regarding the show's universe, as well as an unexpected appearance by a fan-favorite "Arrowverse" character after the episode's big climax. But according to the series showrunner, this may have been a long time coming.

The season finale saw Tyler Hoechlin's Superman/Clark Kent finally get his powers back after baddie-of-the-year Ally Allston (Rya Kihlstedt) took them away during her attempt to merge the show's Earth with its Bizarro counterpart. Naturally, as these things go, Superman regained his powers at the last minute (thanks to his brother helpfully hurling him into the sun) and stopped her just in the nick of time. But as enjoyable as the main events of the season were, viewers had a couple more surprises waiting for them.

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The season 2 finale revealed that Superman and Lois officially takes place in its own universe, separate from the other current and previous DC shows on the CW. This happened in a conversation where Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh) explained to Clark Kent's sons that Superman is the only superhero on their Earth. Many fans had been wondering whether there would be a connection between Superman and Lois and the rest of the network's shows, and it looks like this is the answer.

Superman & Lois season 1 promotional image

Showrunner Todd Helbing spoke to Den of Geek about the big reveal, and it turns out it may have been the result of a decision made early on regarding the series' connection to other Arrowverse shows. "[In the original pilot script] there were a lot of references to Crisis on Infinite Earths, with the boys going from infants to teenagers and how Clark was disconnected from them because of that," Helbing said, referring to the big Arrowverse crossover in 2019. "But when…we're trying to just launch a show, and cast the widest net we can, some of this stuff is so esoteric that it might confuse people more than help them." It turns out Helbing and the rest of the Superman and Lois team wanted the show to stand on its own, and it's tough to do that when it's got so many connections to other series.

So they made that choice to keep it in its own universe pretty early (unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its constant connections), but couldn't tell anybody until now. "I think because of the pandemic, and just our want to really just be our own show, and really put our own stamp on the Superman mythos, all those references got stripped out," Helbing explained. "I had a conversation with DC, in season one about us not being on the same planet, as the rest of the Arrowverse, but I couldn't tell that to anybody, because I was asked [to hold it] until the finale. DC is unbelievably awesome to work with, but they're a big corporation with a lot of balls in the air….but certainly, the fans over the seasons had a lot of questions [and] they were becoming frustrated. I wish we could have told everybody sooner, but we just couldn't."

The other big surprise came in the form of David Ramsey's John Diggle, originally introduced in Arrow and recently seen in pretty much every DC show on the CW, appearing at the end to have a chat with Wolé Parks' John Henry Irons. But according to Helbing, it's up to fans whether he's the same version of the character from the original shows or a separate one. Maybe that will be answered in the next season, or maybe not. Either way, things should be a lot more clear for Superman and Lois going forward.

Superman and Lois season 2 is available to stream on the CW app.

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Source: Den of Geek