SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Man of Steel," the latest episode of Superman & Lois.
Superman & Lois star Wolé Parks is a hero in the making. When Parks' casting was announced for The CW series, the network kept his character's identity under wraps, referring to him only as The Stranger. Then, in the show's pilot, he took on a new name: Captain Luthor. Now, in "Man of Steel," the character's true identity and purpose have come into focus. As it turns out, Parks is playing none other than John Henry Irons, who -- in the comics, at least -- goes on to become the superhero Steel.
Speaking to CBR, Parks and Superman & Lois writer Jai Jamison broke down this major reveal. They recalled how the character evolved from Captain Luthor to John Henry Irons during the COVID (coronavirus) pandemic break, as well as how they went "back to the drawing board" to better understand the character's perspective. They explained why Irons never truly lied to Lois about who he was and shared which comics they turned to for inspiration. They also teased a different side of Irons' personality, the importance of his genius and more.
CBR: Jai, at what point did Steel enter the conversation for Superman & Lois? When did you all realize he needed to be part of this story?
Jai Jamison: So, from pretty much the very beginning, the first day in the room, we were thinking about Captain Luthor as having a redemption arc, or kind of explaining what happened on his Earth that made him the way he is now, laying the groundwork for him to come around. Then, maybe a month or two later -- I want to say it was last April or May -- that a writer's assistant, Adam [Mallinger], pitched, "What if we made him John Henry Irons?" and then it just snowballed from there. It was that revelatory pitch, that the skies opened up --
Wolé Parks: The clouds parted!
Jamison: Yeah, exactly! And light shone from the Zoom into our various abodes! We were like, "Yes, this it is. This is the thing." We started building it out from there. One of the silver linings of our being paused for COVID is that we were able to kind of institute it from the beginning. From that point, we were able to weave it in from the beginning of our narratives. It's funny -- I was talking to [showrunner] Todd [Helbing] earlier -- I was like, "We don't even think about the character that he was other than John Henry anymore." He kind of always has been John Henry to us.
Wole, when did they clue you into the character's true identity? This was a big, big secret leading up to the series premiere!
Parks: Oh, 100%. I know. It's funny, because it went from the secret of, "I'm The Stranger. Okay, then he's Captain Luthor. Okay, now he's John Henry Irons!" [laughs] I was going through multiple iterations.
Actually, kind of like what Jai is talking about, it happened over COVID, over our break, because obviously that delayed us shooting and we were supposed to start shooting, I think, in April of last year, but we didn't come to Vancouver until September. So I talked to Todd; he give me a call maybe around sometime in summertime, maybe July. He told me the whole idea of the character and it blew me away.
I was absolutely amazed, because when I auditioned, it was originally for Lex. That was the idea of the character. He sounded like Lex, he read like Lex. Actually, speaking of secret, I think some of my sides were similar to the sides that Morgan Edge had to read, which -- if I'm correct about that -- because they have similar tones.
So when I found that it was John Henry Irons, I had to go back to the drawing board, on my own, at least, and figure out, "Okay, now who is this guy?" Because they're two totally different characters with two totally different perspectives on life and how they see the world and how they interact with the world. So I had to change all that, and it was exciting, because this is an iconic character we've never seen on screen before me -- again, outside of the Shaq movie, I guess, or whatever -- but for me, also, it was also terrifying because I'm like, "Whoa, I've been crafting this version of Lex," and then suddenly, it's like, "Oh, okay, let me just make this new version, which I hope they actually like!" [laughs]
Aside from the hammer, what's a Steel Easter egg we might have missed in the previous six episodes that hinted towards Irons' true identity?
Jamison: Well, the main one -- the first one that really comes to mind -- and it's more of a little hint that he is not... The whole conversation that he has with Lois in the bar, where he's like he works for Luthor Corp., right, and the reference the Lex. On his Earth, John Henry did work for Luthor. That's the background of his science knowledge; he was assigned to Luthor Corp. when everything went down, and then he reenlisted in the army to fight against those folks. So it was kind of that reference to the work at Luthor Corp, but not being Luthor.
Parks: And you know what's so funny about that one is -- because you're so right about that, because I do know that the idea of John Henry Irons, is that he was this engineer. So I was worried, like in my head, I'm like, "Oh my God, when I say that I'm an engineer and I worked for Lex Corp., now it's gonna be out of the bag!"
So in my mind, I was trying to play it like a wink kind of thing. Because in my mind, I was like, "If I play it off in a fun way, I guess, then maybe the audience will look past it." But yeah, I agree. That's a big thing, because that is John Henry Irons. He wasn't lying. You know, the idea is that we think that he's creating this persona for Lois, but he really isn't. He really is telling her actually the truth.
What kind of research did you do to prepare to adapt John Henry Irons?
Parks: Again, obviously, we have to talk about Death of Superman because that is where John Henry Irons came from. I read that when I was a kid, which is many, many decades ago! [laughs] So I read that back then, when it came out, and so I just got all those again.
DC has a subscription service, so I just signed on to that. So I literally read all the issues, and I didn't realize how big it was, because I guess I'd forgotten. Because in my head, I kind of think about it as maybe like -- you know, the Death of Superman itself was like four [issues], with him fighting Doomsday and all that, and then it went from there, but it's over like two dozen issues. So I read all of those.
Then, also because I love the cartoons, I rewatched a bunch of Superman: The Animated Series. I watched the entirety [of] Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and I threw in some Batman: The Animated Series just because I will always love that. It didn't have anything to do with research. I just love that show. It was kind of like, "This is 'work,' is to read comics and watch cartoons?!" Did it feel like work? Absolutely not. But that was my heavy research into him for that version.
Jamison: I tried to hit as many various incarnations of Steel as he's existed in the comics. So of course, the Death of Superman run, as well, was my starting point. I mean, that's what I grew up on. I remember I bought the black sleeves, just like Wolé did, back in the day and all that. Then I went and I checked out the New 52 run, Grant Morrison. One really interesting book that I really enjoyed was the Superman/Terminator crossover.
Parks: Oh! I didn't know they had that. Wow.
Jamison: John Henry, as an engineer, [if] you're fighting some robots and cyborgs, it'd be good to have John Henry on your side. So that was one that I really enjoyed that I found when I was doing this research. So yeah, I would just talk through it.
One of the benefits of being a writer on a comic book show or a DC show, I get a subscription from DC, where they just load all the comic books into my iPad, so I can just go and look stuff up. So I just uploaded through a lot of incarnations. The way that I've approached it -- a lot of the writers have this -- is we take bits and pieces from our favorite runs for these characters to create an amalgamation that is our own take on them. So it's definitely pulled from a bunch of various sources to craft this John Henry.
As often happens in an adaptation, Irons' backstory has been updated for Superman & Lois. Tell me a little about how you and the other writers decided what should stay to make John Henry feel consistently like John Henry.
Jamison: Our number one thing for John Henry is he's a family man, a man of deep caring and love. You see it with Lois, you see it with Nat, his daughter, and [he] was put in this extreme situation that pulls him back into the fight. The way we concepted it is, John Henry was in the army, he left to become a civilian and become an engineer, work on building irrigation systems and all that stuff, and then the resurrection happened, and he has to go back to war. So those core elements.
Also, the thing that I think Wolé does such a fantastic job of this episode is bringing out, in those conversations with Nat, seeing the humanity and the joy. One of the main things that we were really excited about showing was this other side of John Henry, that he hadn't seen for the six part episodes. We see glimpses of it when he's interacting with Lois, with this world's Lois, but like seeing him relaxed, loved and happy. He's happy! And just seeing those assets.
But the core elements of the character that we wanted to keep: he's a genius. He is a genius engineer; he can fix any problem if he sets his mind to it, including taking down some Kryptonians. He still is faced with this problem. He still needs help to fix this particular problem.
Parks: I agree. Kind of just, honestly, what he said -- that's the whole thing about it. It gives you the freedom for it. I think, for me, what I took from outside of the comics, because like I said, I've read all the comics and I did all that stuff, I honestly wanted to go more for the emotional aspect of him because as an actor, that's just how I attack roles.
I went through more the military aspect, because I thought that was new. When I think of John Henry Irons, I think of an engineer, like we talked about, like science and his brilliant mind. But because this is a guy who had to go through that war, all that pain and that trauma, that's something that, as an actor, I just felt like that has to be weighing on him all the time -- not even just under the surface, like that's just him. I feel like that's an energy he gives off.
So I did a lot of research, honestly, on army vets and PTSD. That was what I wanted to do as a touchstone to get into his mindset, or at least the energy he gives off. Like Jai was saying, what I did love about the episode and what I really wanted people to see was like to see some smiling parts.
I feel like some people -- I don't read too many comments or whatever, but I feel like some people are like, "He just seems really angry!" Like he's just always going through stuff, and I'm like, "He is!" He's been through this traumatic experience, and the whole idea is you understand why, though. I think this episode finally gets people to really be like, "Oh, I get it now." The thing that's just gonna be beautiful is to see where he goes from here.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. The series airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
0 Comments