Warning: SPOILERS for Superman & Lois' Series Premiere
Superman & Lois' series premiere showed the death of Jonathan Kent and it homaged how Superman's adoptive father died in Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve. In Superman & Lois, Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch reprise their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane. The CW's series' twist is Lois and Clark are now parents of teenage twin boys, and the Kents move their family to Clark's hometown of Smallville, Kansas.
Like many other films and TV series about Superman in the last 40 years, especially Smallville, Superman & Lois owes a great deal of its iconography to Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie. Released in 1978, Superman: The Movie was the first modern superhero film and it's eternally influential, with Christopher Reeve's seminal performance as the Man of Steel setting the gold standard for every other actor donning the red cape. Naturally, Superman & Lois borrows quite a bit from Donner's film, and the show included a shout-out to the director in the form of his name etched on a blackboard in the Kents' Metropolis apartment. Superman & Lois' sweeping cinematography in Smallville also reflects the grandeur of how the director of photography, Geoffrey Unsworth, shot Superman: The Movie.
Superman & Lois begins with a montage of Clark Kent's life that he narrates, and this includes the tragic death of his human father, Jonathan Kent (Fred Henderson). In Superman & Lois' version, Clark was a teenager and the Kents were walking in Smallville's main street when Jonathan suddenly grips his wrist and collapses. The elder Kent died of a heart attack, and this moment is a deliberate echo of Pa Kent's death scene in Superman: The Movie. In Donner's film, Jonathan (Glenn Ford) counsels his disappointed son about why he shouldn't show off his powers to the kids in high school. "You are here for a reason," Jonathan tells Clark, "[and] it's not to score touchdowns." As Clark runs into the farmhouse, a horrified Jonathan suddenly grips his left wrist, whispers, "Oh no," collapses, and dies of a heart attack.
Jonathan's funeral in Superman & Lois is also similar to Pa Kent's service in Superman: The Movie, with Clark (Dylan Kingwell) at the side of his adoptive mother Martha (Michele Scarabelli). In the film, the funeral is a sad and solemn moment that led to Clark's decision to leave Smallville and pursue his destiny "north", which ultimately led to him creating the Fortress of Solitude, meeting his Kryptonian father Jor-El (Marlon Brando), and becoming Superman.
In Superman & Lois, the drama is even more heightened and operatic; the show stages Pa Kent's funeral in the rain with the emotionally distraught Clark rushing out of the service. Both versions echo Clark's frustration as voiced in Superman: The Movie: "All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him." Jonathan Kent's death in each version teaches Clark an important lesson about his limits, even with Superman's godlike powers, and how he must cope and find meaning after a tragic loss.
Superman & Lois also kills off Martha Kent in its pilot episode, which creates the reason why Lois and Clark decide to relocate to Smallville to raise their family as well as to try to help Clark's hometown, which has fallen on hard times. This is different from Superman: The Movie where Clark sent half of his Daily Planet paycheck home to his Martha (Phyllis Thaxter) until she died offscreen during the sequels. So, both Christopher Reeve and Tyler Hoechlin's Clarks are orphaned as adults. In Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Clark decided not to sell the Kent Farm to a real estate developer after Martha passed away. Superman & Lois moving the Kents back to Smallville is a huge change for the Man of Steel, but it would have made both Jonathan and Martha Kent proud.