Tom Cavanagh’s ‘Superman & Lois’ Role Revealed

SPOILER ALERT: The article contains details about Superman & Lois.

Tom Cavanagh has made his highly-anticipated return to The CW‘s extended DC universe after The Flash ended its nine-season run last year.

On Monday’s Season 4 episode of Superman & Lois, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’, the actor appears as TV journalist Gordon Godfrey, moderating a live televised debate between Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) and Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz, who also directed the episode).

Co-showrunner Brent Fletcher explained why the role was perfect for Cavanagh. “He’s hilarious and has more energy than a 10-year-old. [The character is] not like him at all, but he can play that guy perfectly,” he told TVLine.

“It was the no-brainer of all time,” added co-showrunner Todd Helbing.

Cavanagh’s new DC role comes after he played Harrison Wells and Eobard Thawne in The Flash, as well as other Arrowverse shows Arrow, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.

Fletcher previously teased in September that Cavanagh would appear on Superman & Lois as “definitely a new character from the DC universe,” telling Entertainment Weekly, “It is not something you’ve seen before. I wish we could have had this character for 18 seasons. It was fun.”

Superman & Lois premiered in 2021 as a spin-off of Supergirl, with the 2019 Arrowverse crossover event ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ serving as a backdoor pilot, but the show has since taken on its own separate continuity.

Following the finale of The Flash in May 2023, Cavanagh told Deadline about the possibility of returning to the Arrowverse with his own spin-off.

“The nice thing about playing the main villain is the departure is never really final,” said Cavanagh. “Even to this day, if you watch the finale, you’re well aware that a blast like that wouldn’t kill the Reverse-Flash. So there’s always room for a Reverse-Flash spin off, which I’m more than willing to don that cool and elegant yellow suit once again and tell the Reverse-Flash spinoff story.”