Fans thought they would have to wait until James Gunn’s Superman to get a fresh take on the Man of Steel. Yet in 2023, My Adventures with Superman landed on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network and offered a fresh new take on the popular superhero. The series reimagined much of the Superman mythos, bringing in a wide variety of characters and villains from outside of Superman’s supporting roster to flesh out the world, yet the focus always remained on humanizing Clark Kent/Superman, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen and developing the core dynamic between the three.
My Adventures with Superman has plenty of incredible action but also a heavy emphasis on romance and buddy comedy. At times, it feels like the closest audiences will get to a Nora Ephron-inspired superhero story. Season 2 looks to delve more into the action, romance, and wider DC lore, including paying off a fan theory surrounding Superman’s arch-enemy, Lex Luthor. MovieWeb sat down with series co-executive producers Jake Wyatt and Brendan Clogher and co-producer Josie Campbell to discuss My Adventures with Superman Season 2.
Superman: Secret Origins
My Adventures With Superman
5/5
Clark Kent builds his secret Superman identity and embraces his role as the hero of Metropolis, while sharing adventures and falling in love with Lois, a star investigative journalist, who also takes Jimmy Olsen under her wing.
- Release Date
- July 6, 2023
- Cast
- Jack Quaid , Alice Lee , Ishmel Sahid , Kari Wahlgren
- Seasons
- 2
- Studio
- HBO, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation
- Streaming Service(s)
- Max
- Directors
- Jen Bennett , Diana Huh , Christina Manrique
- Showrunner
- Jake Wyatt
My Adventures with Superman was announced in May 2021, but due to the ongoing behind-the-scenes struggles of the DCEU Warner Bros. film division and the ending of the Arrowverse, it seemed to fly under the radar for many people until it premiered in July 2023. When My Adventures with Superman premiered, it was the first Superman-led animated series on the air in 16 years following the end of The Legion of Superheroes in 2007.
Jake Wyatt had previously worked as the storyboard director for Invader Zim: Enter the Flophouse, while Brendan Clogher is a DC animation veteran, having worked as a storyboard artist for series like Justice League Action and animated movies like Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Batman: Assault on Arkham. Talking about the origin of the series, Wyatt said:
“Brendan and I originally developed it.
We were honestly just talking about superhero fatigue, ironically
. And we were like, ‘Man, I’m tired of everybody. Who are you still interested in of all the superheroes?’ We both settled on Superman, and then we started working on a pitch. Then [Warner Bros.] asked us for one, almost like they smelled it or heard it in the air. We got a pilot order from HBO Max, and we called Josie and were like, ‘We need to write a pilot now,’ and then Josie came on”.
Campbell is one of the top animation writers working today, having written for She-Ra and the Princesses of Powerand Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. When asked about coming on board for Superman, she said, “I loved coming on, even at the pilot. At the time, I was the head writer for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, and then Brendan and Jake wined and dined me at Wokcano in Burbank and walked me through it. They have the images for Lois, Jimmy, and Clark, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah.’ As soon as I saw the pictures, I was like, ‘I’m in. I’ll write the pilot. Whatever, dinosaurs are done now. Superman’s my new best friend.‘
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Developing Season 2 of Their Adventures
Moving on from the first season, the team was under less pressure to prove themselves, and given more room for creativity. Explaining the major difference between developing Seasons 1 and 2, Wyatt said, “What’s fun about Season 2, in relationship to the development, when you are pitching television, you pitch season one in some amount of detail, and for Season 2, you can just go ‘Supergirl,’ and they go ‘Great, Supergirl,’ and then you leave.”
He went on to add:
“We got to really figure out season two with our room of writers in a way that we didn’t know what it was going to be like.
We knew how it more or less ended emotionally, but we didn’t know what it was
. So it was really fun to break that on the fly with a room full of extremely talented writers, led by our very own Josephine Campbell. It was great.
So, Season 2 was a surprise to us, which I think is gonna make it more of a surprise to you
.”
Superman’s Greatest Enemy Was Hiding in Plain Sight
Every superhero has an arch-enemy, and for Superman, everybody knows it’s Lex Luthor. The first season of My Adventures with Superman emphasizes other Superman villains like Livewire, Parasite, and Mister Mxyzptlk. However, eagle-eyed fans took note of a seemingly unimportant henchman. One villain, Professor Ivo/Parasite, has a young assistant named Alex and fans immediately started to speculate that this was Lex Luthor due to his scientific genius and red hair. Much to viewers’ delight, this theory turned out to be true in Season 2.
With all that said, Lex Luthor almost didn’t make it into the show; in fact, his appearance was a bit of a workaround. “Brendan is the reason we have Lex Luthor,” said Wyatt. “He’s the one who snuck Alex into season one. He just put him in there, and then the execs were like, ‘This Alex guy, is he Lex?’ And Brendan went, ‘Do you want him to be Lex?‘”
Clogher detailed a bit more of their original pitch: “Jake and I kind of had a version of the story that was a little more like, here’s all these villains, like Lex Luthor and Metallo and stuff like that, and the execs wisely told us, ‘Hold off on all that.'” Wyatt added:
[They said] ‘You can’t touch any of that.’ I believe [President of Warner Bros. Animation] Sam Register’s words were, ‘You haven’t earned the right yet.’
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Easter Eggs to Look Out For
Lex Luthor isn’t the only major DC character joining My Adventures with Superman Season 2. The trailers also confirm the appearance of Kara Zor-El/Supergirl. Given that Season 1 featured plenty of fun characters from the wider DC Universe, from Silver Banshee to Batman supporting character Vicki Vale, speculation has been ramping up on who could appear in Season 2. One character on everyone’s mind is Krypto the Super Dog, who previously led his own Cartoon Network show and was recently voiced by Dwayne Johnson in DC League of Super-Pets. It sounds like Krypto and a few other DC characters might make brief appearances for fans to watch out for.
“There is actually a Krypto cameo in Season 2, and I defy anyone to find it,” said Wyatt. “He showed up because the design team snuck him in; it wasn’t us. The designers were like, ‘I’m putting the dog in there.'”
“Sometimes things get by you,” laughed Clogher. Campbell certainly teased some bigger ones that should get fans excited:
I’m going to say there will be some deep cuts of DC Universe stuff in general, and some are Easter eggs. Some are a little bit more fleshed out, but if you thought there were references in Season 1, get ready for Season 2.
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My Adventures with Superman Gets Even Bigger
Fans have been eagerly awaiting season two of My Adventures with Superman since Season 1 concluded with an epic showdown. Superman stopped an alien invasion that set up the arrival of villains like Brainiac, while the finale also let Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s relationship develop more. The creators are just as excited for fans to see Season 2.
“The clearest and most important thing about the Season 1 pitch was that the three characters had to be clear, solid, and figured out,” said Wyatt. “We didn’t have the Season 2 characters figured out, so it was really fun to create the personalities and the insane conversations […] the weird places that we ended up diving to flesh out these characters and their relationships. Who you’re gonna meet was so fun and so weird and so unexpected.”
“Season 2 was a lot of fun because it’s exactly what Jake said,” added Campbell. “How do we naturally evolve the story from Season 1? What big things do we hit to make it feel just as big, if not bigger? It was so fun.”
Season 2 Will Put Relationships to the Test
What can fans look forward to in Season 2? Well, like any good long-form romance, fans should get ready to have their hearts broken, as the hardest part of relationships and friendships isn’t just starting them but maintaining them.
“Season 1 is a little bit the honeymoon period of them learning about each other. Lois and Clark are falling in love. Lois, Jimmy, and Clark are becoming a trio. Season 2 is testing all of those bonds and relationships and seeing what survives. What’s being thrown at them, and what falls apart?” said Campbell, adding:
It’s going to be very emotional for all of the characters, but definitely the three of them. They’ve hit the hard part of being in relationships and having friendships, and we’ll see what comes out the other side.
“In Season 1, we really put Clark, individually, through the ringer, and Lois and Jimmy were there to help and support him. In Season 2, no one is spared,” said Wyatt.
“We built them up in Season 1, so I hope nothing bad happens to them,” added Clogher with mock innocence. To which Wyatt added with a devilish laugh:
“Nothing bad happens to three best friends…”
My Adventures with Superman premieres on Adult Swim on May 25 for a special two-hour premiere and is available on Max the next day. You can watch the series through the link below:
