‘Smallville’ Fans Petition For Live Action Season 11

Fans of the long-running CW series Smallville are petitioning Warner Bros. Television to adapt Bryan Q. Miller’s Smallville Season 11 comic books into a season of live-action TV.

Of course, series star Tom Welling has repeatedly expressed no interest in returning to the role of Clark Kent, and one of the other major players in the series was recently arrested for human trafficking and faces more than a decade in prison if convicted, but that does not seem to factor into the thinking here.

“Clark finally became Superman and then it carried on as a comic book into Season 11 and ended with the miniseries,” the petition observes. “This is just not right. Smallville should have ended as Live Action.”

The Season Eleven comics carried on from six months after the season finale — and a time-jump in the series’ final scene would have taken place in 2018, which plays into the petition as well.

“Also at the end of Smallville Season 10 Finale Part 2, it is set in 2018,” the petition reasons. “Which would actually make sense, if it was to be released back on TV in 2018.”

That would, of course, only make sense if it were to be released in 2018, which would require the series to be scripted, cast, filmed, and fully produced in time for the fall TV season.

The CW, meanwhile, have had a run of successes and it already seems likely that iZombie — one of the network’s six DC Comics adaptations — could be cancelled at the end of this season in part because there is no room on the schedule for it.

The petition currently sits at a little over 200 signatures, with a goal of 500. It seems unlikely that even 500 signatures would signal enough enthusiasm to encourage Warner Bros. TV and The CW to consider a revival.

Currently, The CW airs five DC superhero shows: Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. They all share a multiverse; Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow all take place on Earth-1, where there is no Superman. On Earth-38, where Supergirl takes place, Superman is played by Tyler Hoechlin and there have been numerous context clues to indicate theirs is not the world where Smallville took place (although Chloe Sullivan still exists there).

Per the “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover event, there are 53 Earths in the CW multiverse, of which audiences have seen about a dozen in various ways. That leaves around forty Earths that could potentially serve as a setting for a Smallville follow-up.

Welling currently appears on Lucifer, another DC Comics series, which airs on FOX. Both he and Michael Rosenbaum have expressed a willingness to at least consider a potential animated follow-up.

The CW’s upfront presentation in New York happens later this month; for any prospective Smallville project to be on the air before mid-2019, it would likely have to be announced there.

Next up: a petition to revive Batman ’66. Because clearly Burt Ward should not have to endure his character’s final words happening on the printed page, either.