Though it may be the summer of Superman this year, unfortunately, it’s probably not going to be the summer of Smallville. This week marked Smallville star Tom Welling’s third appearance on his co-star Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You, and their conversation covered a range of topics. Smallville inevitably came up, and the two stars, who also co-host the Smallville rewatch podcast Talkville, discussed the possibility of a reboot of the beloved series, which ran for ten seasons on The WB/CW from 2001 until 2011. However, we’re sorry to say, it’s not looking like we’ll see TV’s Clark Kent and Lex Luthor reprise their roles any time soon.
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Rosenbaum asked Welling if he thought it was “too far-fetched that Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar] will ever say, ‘Let’s do a one episode thing, or a movie or something?’” Al Gough and Miles Millar created Smallville and served as the series’s showrunners for its first seven seasons. The pair have gone on to have a string of other TV successes, including Into the Badlands, and most recently, the Netflix juggernaut Wednesday. “I’m smiling and saying it probably will never happen,” Welling replied, yet he was quick to add, “But, like, I love the idea.”
The update comes as a crushing blow to Smallville‘s still very active fanbase, who regularly tune in to Talkville and have remained active enough for Smallville actors to organize their own conventions and celebrity cruises to celebrate the show. Rosenbaum and Welling have strived for years to get an animated Smallville sequel series off the ground; however, Warner Bros.’s reboot of its DC Comics properties and the turn to a more unified franchise under James Gunn’s DCU have stymied those efforts.
There’s Still a Way for Us to See Smallville Stars in the DCU
Though Rosenbaum has unabashedly led the charge for a Smallville reboot or revival, he, too, agreed with Welling’s assessment of the situation, “It just doesn’t seem like our show’s the type of show that that would have [one].” The closest we got to a revival was in 2019 during the CW Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. Welling and Erica Durance reprised their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively, for a scene where we learn that Welling’s Clark gave up his superpowers to become a father.
Ultimately, he’s right, since a sequel to Smallville would merely be a Superman series. The series finale of Smallville saw Welling’s Clark Kent take on the mantle of the hero at last, fully realizing his destiny, just as a cloned Lex Luthor took his first breath. While a Superman series with Welling, Rosenbaum, and other Smallville cast members, such as Durance, would likely be entertaining television, Warner Bros. just wrapped four seasons of Superman & Lois, which had a similar premise. Furthermore, James Gunn’s Superman has been a critical and commercial success, with planned spinoffs on the horizon. Therefore, we understand why Warner Bros. would want to focus on that specific take on the hero.
However, Rosenbaum did have a small cameo in the new Superman film, as Gunn is one of the actor’s closest friends. Perhaps a strict reboot of Smallville is not in the cards, but there’s a very real possibility that Gunn could have actors from other Superman properties appear in DCU movies and shows. On Smallville, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Annette O’Toole, who all appeared in the 1970s and 1980s Superman movies, each played roles in the series. Superman himself, David Corenswet, has shared that he was a fan of Smallville and that Welling was “his Superman” growing up. With such warmth between the cast of Smallville and key players in the DCU, who’s to say Welling and Rosenbaum can’t still be involved in the latest chapter of Superman’s mythology?
Smallville is currently streaming on Hulu.
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Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.
