Smallville Star Still Disappointed Batman Never Showed Up

In just a few weeks, The CW’s final DC series, Superman & Lois will return for its final season, closing a chapter of television that in many ways started with another iconic portrayal of Superman — or rather, Clark Kent. Smallville aired on the network (after starting on the WB in 2001) until 2011 and told a coming-of-age story for Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, before he became the Man of Steel. Over the series’ 10 seasons, Smallville introduced a number of iconic DC characters and heroes into the mix, but for Welling there was always one character he wanted to see on the series. That character was Bruce Wayne/Batman and now, more than a decade later, Welling is still disappointed Batman never showed up.

During a recent appearance at Terrificon (via Screen Rant), Welling spoke about how he still wishes that Smallville had been given permission to use the Bruce Wayne/Batman character for the series, explaining the reason why it never happened and elaborating on what his ideal scene for the character would have looked like.

“I always thought that we should have had Bruce Wayne pass through somehow,” Welling said. “That would have been really cool to see. You know how Clark always got into the Luthor Mansion with no problem? But like, if he had gone into Lex’s office, and it was just as simple as Lex being like, ‘Good to meet you, Bruce’ or ‘I’ll talk to you later, Bruce’ and have him just walk out. I think that would have been cool. But one of the challenges we had is DC movies and DC television don’t talk to each other, and it’s very difficult as a television show to try to use — it’s a big deal, even using the Superman soundtrack.”

These recent comments aren’t the first time that Welling has indicated that Bruce Wayne not appearing on Smallville is one of his regrets about the series. Back in 2019 during an appearance at Fan Expo Canada, Welling also said that it would have been “cool” to have Bruce Wayne on the series.

“I can tell you what I wish we would have seen, was some version of a Bruce Wayne that fit in with what we were doing,” Welling said. “I think that would have been cool.”

Batman Did Eventually Appear on Smallville… Sort Of

In 2012, Smallville got a “Season 11” in the form of a comics series from DC. The series maintained the general continuity of the series and continued Clark Kent’s adventures, now as Superman, following the events of the television series’ finale. In one of the book’s “episodes” series writer Bryan Q. Miller brought Batman into the story along with a female version of Nightwing — with Barbara Gordon in the costume.

A Smallville Animated Series Could Be in the Works

In the years since Smallville ended, there has been talk of an animated version of the series and while it hasn’t come to fruition yet, earlier this year at Nashville Comicon, Smallville star Michael Rosenbaum told ComicBook that he and Welling are still working on it, but it’s going to take time.

“Tom and I are working on a Smallville animated series that we’re trying to get made,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s gonna take time. But the creators of Smallville are attached, they want to be a part of it. And we, you know, when it’s the right time, we’ll pitch it. You know, we’re working on it and we have some loose animation that we’ve worked [on] with someone who was just awesome. It looks great. So, if we can get that made, that’d be awesome.”