SUPERMAN & LOIS Casts Dylan Walsh as General Sam Lane

Lois Lane just found her father.

Deadline has word that the upcoming CW Arrowverse series Superman & Lois, based on the DC Comics characters, has cast Dylan Walsh in the role of General Sam Lane, father of Elizabeth Tulloch's character, Lois Lane, and her sister Lucy.

According to the article, Sam Lane is described as "a no-nonsense Army general who’s determined to keep America, and the world, safe from all threats – from this world or beyond. Lane’s a workaholic who demands nothing but excellence from all those in his life."

Walsh, 56, is probably best known as Dr. Sean McNamara on the FX series Nip/Tuck, and has appeared the films Secretariat and The Lake House, and in episodes of Blue Bloods, Whiskey Cavalier, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Longmire, NCIS: New Orleans, Castle, Revenge, Unforgettable, and The Twilight Zone (2002).

Created in 1959 by Robert Bernstein and Kurt Schaffenberger, Sam Lane first appeared in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #13 as a horse farmer in the town of Pittsdale, but was later reimagined in 1987's Adventures of Superman #424 as a hard and outspoken US Army General who often causes problems for Superman and his daughter Lois. Lane had wanted his eldest child to be a boy, so had treated Lois as a surrogate son, when he was present at all.

When Lex Luthor became President of the United States, he made Lane Secretary of Defense.  This inevitably led to Lois, as an investigative journalist trying to prove Luthor was crooked, opposing her father, especially during the buildup to the Imperiex War.  During the War, General Lane was apparently killed by an Imperiex probe, when he detonated the nuclear engine of his tank to crack the shell of the probe and give Black Lightning the chance to get through its armor.

Believing that their father was dead, Lois and Lucy grieved for him.  Lucy decided to try and honor her father's memory and give him the soldier he was denied by joining the U.S. Army. Lucy was wounded during the Amazons' attack on Washington D.C., but was rescued and brought to a secret facility.  General Sam Lane finally revealed himself alive and in charge of a covert operation called Project 7734.  Lucy was given a mystically-powered costume and identity of Superwoman to infiltrate Kandor to gather intelligence on the Kryptonians of New Krypton, whom the U.S. government believed to be a risk for Earth's security.

Under Lane's orders, the disgraced Luthor transformed the Earth's sun from yellow to red to rob the Kryptonians of their powers, until this countermeasure was neutralized and the sun reverted back to yellow.  At the same time, Jimmy Olsen and his associates transmitted all of General Lane's activities to news sites all over the World Wide Web.  When confronted by an angered Supergirl and his daughter Lois, Sam Lane commited suicide rather than be made accountable to an international court.

In the current DC Comics continuity known as DC Rebirth, Sam Lane is alive once again and seen as the official U.S. military representative whenever a nationwide crisis arises.

Walsh will be the sixth actor to portray Sam Lane in live action, after Kirk Alyn in the 1978 film Superman, Denis Arndt and Harve Presnell on the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Michael Ironside on the CW series Smallville, and Glenn Morshower on the CBS/CW series Supergirl.  The character has also appeared in various animated projects, including Superman: The Animated Series (voiced by Dean Jones), All-Star Superman (voiced by Steven Blum), Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (voiced by Danny Huston), and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (voiced by Jay K. Johnson).

Superman & Lois is currently expected to premiere on The CW sometime in Fall 2020.