Smallville's Phil Morris On Whether He Would Return for the Animated Series

By Russ Burlingame

For half of the show's run, Smallville fans had Phil Morris popping in from time to time as Detective John Jones -- also known as J'Onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. It wasn't the character's first foray into live action, but it was certainly the first one that received positive attention -- in no small part because of Morris's own performance. Now, it's been about a decade since Smallville ended, and series stars Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum are working with co-creators Al Gough and Miles Millar to create an animated series based on Smallville, in which the pair could reprise their roles despite being much older than they were when the series finale aired.

Earlier this month, we spoke with Morris about his new film, Ghosts of the Ozarks. It's a supernatural Western in which he plays the most powerful man in town...a town haunted by mysterious forces. That presence and authority is something he used to good effect as J'Onn, and so we asked whether he would ever consider a return to the role, whether in the animated series or in some other capacity on TV.

"You know the answer is yes," Morris told ComicBook with a laugh. "You're like a good attorney; you know the answer. Yes, of course. I love J'Onn J'onzz, and I loved how he was rendered in Smallville. I would love to bring that rendition or an expanded rendition to whatever show they would want me to be in. I love comics, as you know -- I'm looking at my collection right now -- so yeah. Let me play. Give me free rein in that universe and I'll kill it, man. We'd have a great time."

The character of J'Onn was most recently played by David Harewood on Supergirl. Morris currently appears on Doom Patrol as Silas Stone, the father of the superhero known as Cyborg. And the world of Smallville most recently appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, which gave Clark Kent (Welling) and Lois Lane (Erica Durance) a chance to revisit their roles one more time.

In Ghosts of the Ozarks, a young doctor named James McCune (Thomas Hobson) is called by his uncle Matthew (Phil Morris) to come to a small town, where he can serve as the town doctor following the death of his predecessor. When he arrives, what he finds is that his uncle -- and the town -- are far from what they're all cracked up to be. The town lives in fear of a supernatural threat -- all except for Matthew, who seems to have some kind of control over not just the threat itself, but by extension, the whole town as a result.

You can get Ghosts of the Ozarks to rent or own on Digital now. All ten seasons of Smallville are available to stream on Hulu, or to buy on DVD or Blu-ray.

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