DC fans are eagerly awaiting news on who James Gunn and Peter Safran will cast as their new Last Son of Krypton once the DCU is rebooted with summer 2025’s Superman: Legacy. However, it could be argued that just as integral to that film’s success will be who the producers hire to star opposite the mysterious new Man of Steel as his one true love and bull-pen partner, Lois Lane.
For as long as Superman has appeared on our screens, Lois has been beside him, proving herself to be the most indispensable of superhero romantic interests — we’ve seen Spider-Man without Mary Jane and Batman without Catwoman, but Lois has appeared in every Superman movie and TV series to date. That means that we’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to fan-favorite portrayals of the First Lady of comics.
While we wait to see who Clark Kent gets to come home to in Superman: Legacy, let’s rank the 10 finest Lois Lanes in the history of DC adaptations.
10. Olivia Wilde (DC League of Super-Pets)
Sorry, Olivia Wilde, but someone had to bring up the rear of this list. The acclaimed actress and filmmaker actually provides a perfectly solid performance as Lois Lane, opposite John Kransinski’s Supes, but the character is such a relatively minor part of this family-friendly animation — starring Dwayne Johnson as the Man of Steel’s mutt Krypto — that it would be unfair to rank Wilde any higher.
9. Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns)
Brandon Routh acquitted himself very well in Superman Returns, despite being forced to do a Christopher Reeve impression, but the same sadly cannot be said for Kate Bosworth. The actress does the best with her role but she lacks that signature Lois snark and at, just 22 at the time, Bosworth was just too young to be entirely believable as a highly experienced Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
8. Phyllis Coates (Superman and the Mole Men/Adventures of Superman)
Phyllis Coates deserves her place in the annals of Superman history for being the Lois Lane most associated with perhaps the first truly iconic live-action take on the hero, George Reeves, as Reeves and Coates appeared opposite each other in both 1951’s Superman and the Mole Men — the Man of Steel’s first feature-length outing — and the first season of the legendary Adventures of Superman TV series.
7. Noel Neill (Superman/Atom Man vs. Superman/Adventures of Superman)
Noel Neill, however, has the honor of being the very first actress to portray Lois Lane on film. She appeared opposite Kirk Alyn across two movie serials from the late 1940s and wonderfully captured both Lois’ nose for a good story and habit of getting herself in trouble. When Coates left the show, Neill returned as Lois for the remainder of Adventures of Superman‘s six-season run, this time working with Reeves.
6. Amy Adams (DCEU)
Much like Henry Cavill himself, Amy Adams was perfect casting as Lois Lane for the DCEU, but it’s up to fans to decide whether the films actually made the best use of her or not. Zack Snyder’s idea to have Lois meet Superman, not Clark, first in Man of Steel was an inspired twist to the tired old formula but later movies in the saga too easily rely on portraying Lois as a damsel in distress.
5. Elizabeth Tulloch (Arrowverse)
Appearing first in the Arroverse’s “Elseworlds” crossover in 2018, Elizabeth “Bitsie” Tulloch had such great chemistry with Tyler Hoechlin that the couple were brought back for her own spinoff show in Superman and Lois. Apart from eerily looking like the comic book Lois come to life, Tulloch captures the heroine’s inner strength and vulnerabilities through her portrayal of Lois as a working mother and the pillar of the Kent family.
4. Dana Delany (DCAU)
There have been many voice actresses to portray Lois across animated media over the years, but the definitive take has to belong to Dana Delany, who played the Daily Planet reporter throughout the beloved DC Animated Universe. Harking back to Lois’ roots as being inspired by the tough female leads of screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s, Delany’s Lois is always running rings around both Clark and Superman
3. Margot Kidder (Superman quadrilogy)
Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane remains the most quintessential depiction of Lois on screen, much as her scene partner Christopher Reeve is for Superman, so it might be somewhat sacrilegious to rank her only third. Honestly, though, the way Lois’ arc gets muddled in the lackluster third and fourth entries in Reeves’ film series loses the character some points, although Kidder herself remains sublime in the first two.
2. Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman)
The Superman/Lois story has always been a gift for TV writers, as it offers the perfect framework for a longform serialized romance, and that was never better deployed than in 1990s classic Lois and Clark. In the absence of any new movies that decade, Teri Hatcher became the Lois of an entire generation, thanks to her appealingly quirky portrayal of Lois and winning chemistry with Dean Cain.
1. Erica Durance (Smallville)
Every Superman fan has their favorite Lois, but here’s our argument for why Erica Durance’s incarnation is the best: Smallville‘s take on the character allows her to grow like no other version, introducing her as a directionless teen with no interest in either journalism or dating Clark and ending with her as The Daily Planet’s finest and Clark’s fiance. Plus, Durance peerlessly blends together elements of Kidder, Hatcher, and Delany’s performances to create the ultimate Lois Lane.
