With Arrow having ended its eight-season run in January, The CW found itself with an hour-long superhero time-slot left to fill. In swooped the newest Arrowverse series Superman & Lois to fill that void when it was officially picked up for a straight-to-series order. The show's supporting cast list has been steadily growing over the last few months, and the most recent addition includes Yellowstone star and former Vampire Diaries baddie Wolé Parks, who was brought in to play Superman & Lois’ mysterious villain.
There’s no superhero show without a dangerous big bad, and Superman & Lois may have found a perfect one. Wolé Parks was tapped for a series regular role on the CW series as a villain currently known only as The Stranger. According to Deadline, The Stranger is someone who’s "hellbent" on proving his belief that the world “no longer needs Superman.” That ideology probably won’t hold water with Superman, and tension will more than likely build over the course of the drama’s 13-episode first season.
The big question here is whether or not The Stranger is a villain that was sourced from the comics, or if showrunner Todd Helbing and the show's creative team created the villain specifically for TV. In DC Comics, “The Stranger” was usually short for The Phantom Stranger, a fallen angel who roamed the earth battling supernatural forces. The Phantom Stranger wasn’t typically labeled a villain, though, as he actually assisted heroes such as Superman on occasion during Justice League missions.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Wolé Parks will be portraying the comics' Stranger, but the “hellbent” part of his description is potentially wordplay indicating the character could be a fallen angel of some kind. What's more, the Arrowverse shows have been known to change up comic book character histories before, so it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if Superman & Lois did the same with its central villain.
Wolé Parks is definitely no stranger to causing trouble on The CW, having played the villainous Cade in Season 8 of The Vampire Diaries before shedding the evil to play Micah Richards on All American, which has become immensely popular on Netflix. He’s also guest-starred on NBC’s Superstore and was a series regular on Devious Maids. Most recently, though, fans of Yellowstone got to know Parks for his turn as Torry, was was introduced in Season 2 of Paramount TV’s western series.
Wolé Parks joins an already well-rounded cast of supporting actors, including Emmanuelle Chriqui as Clark Kent’s old flame Lana Lang, Blue Bloods’ Dylan Walsh as Lois’ father Sam Lane, and Little Fires Everywhere’s Jordan Elsass and Alexander Garfin as Jonathan and Jordan Kent, respectively. The latter two characters are playing none other than Lois and Clark’s sons, though eagle-eyed viewers will remember that the couple only had one child prior to the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. A lot’s changed since then!
There’s currently no scheduled premiere date for Superman & Lois Season 1, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates on the show. For more on what to watch in the meantime, swing by our 2020 summer TV premiere guide.
