My Adventures with Superman producer Josie Campbell discussed diversity in the show, particularly pertaining to Lois Lane's casting, in a recent interview.
The animated DC series, streaming on Max, took a realistic approach to early Superman — at least, as realistic as Superman stories about aliens, the Multiverse, and more can be. Clark Kent's civilian life got much story focus, characters were flawed, rather than icons of perfection, and not everyone was either strictly good or strictly bad.
Campbell previously discussed that part of this was making the "show look like the world around us," a goal that was approached by increasing the diversity of Superman's supporting cast. One example of this was the choice to make Lois Lane, a character historically portrayed as caucasian, Korean.
Lois Lane's Casting In My Adventures with Superman
In an interview with The Comics Cube, My Adventures with Superman producer Josie Campbell talked about the importance of diversity in the show's ensemble, and how that applies to Lois Lane's Korean identity in the show.
She explained that the race change came before the casting of Korean actor Alice Lee, saying that for some, the show had a "three year development process:"
"So, for us, designing the characters came first because we spent about… I spent about two-and-a-half years, and Brendon [Clogher, presumably] and Jake [Wyatt, presumably] started the process before and brought me on, so for them it was kind of a three-year development process."
Campbell then discussed that they kept in mind previous "versions of Lois that have been Asian," citing Superman: American Alien by Max Landis specifically:
"But we knew… There’s been versions of Lois that have been Asian before. You’ve got 'American Alien,' like, you’ve got that new comic that’s out now. There’s been versions of Jimmy that’s been Black before."
Ultimately, this effort to diversify the show was because they knew from the beginning they wanted Metropolis to reflect the real world. She talked, too, about the diversity of the show's behind-the-scenes team. As Campbell put it, "we don’t live in a world where there’s only one type of person:"
"But we knew that when we came in, we wanted to make a Metropolis that, you know, even though their Superman feels realistic, and for us, you know, we don’t live in a world where there’s only one type of person. Like, you know, many of our crew members are people of color, or gay, or queer like I am, or, you know, like come from various backgrounds or various countries. Like not everybody is from America working on our show."
Campbell explained that they wanted to show that since "Metropolis is the City of Tomorrow, that means it embraces everybody." She continued, saying that with Alice Lee's casting "it really solidified:"
"So we wanted a world that reflected that that reflected reality, basically, of, like, Metropolis is the City of Tomorrow, that means it embraces everybody. So we had some designs first, and then when we were casting, it really solidified when we found, you know, who Lois was, when we found Alice Lee, who’s just incredible."
Tomorrow for the City of Tomorrow
With the ideology of "Metropolis is the City of Tomorrow, that means it embraces everybody" underlying the show's development, fans can likely expect similar — if not even more — diversity in the show's second season.
Characters like Lois and Jimmy will almost certainly return, but there are several other characters in Superman's mythos that could see diverse adaptations.
For instance, though it likely wouldn't be for a long time, Lois and Clark have a son in the comics — Jonathan Kent, Superboy. Jon is canonically bisexual, and in My Adventures with Superman would be half-Korean. If Jon were to get adapted, that would be an opportunity for further diversity in the show.
But, as is shown with Lois and Jimmy and even Perry White, there doesn't need to be comics precedent for a character to offer diversity in the show.
My Adventures with Superman's first season is currently streaming on Max.
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