KryptonSite
Comic-Con Report: Kelly Souders & Brian
Peterson Talk Season 8! After
the Smallville panel at the Comic-Con
International in San Diego, the participating
actors and producers spoke with members of
the press about the upcoming season, and we
are now happy to share with you an interview
with two of the show's new executive producers,
Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson,
from their roundtable discussion.
Thanks
go out to "Routh" for transcribing
this one and saving Craig from about an hour's
worth of transcribing.
Souders
and Peterson began the roundtable by talking
about someone who won't be a regular cast
member in Season 8 - Michael Rosenbaum. "We
can't say enough great things about Michael
Rosenbaum," Brian Peterson says. "He
just made the character of Lex Luthor for
our show. It was sad to see him go pursue
his own interests," he continues, pointing
out that the Lex character is going to still
be very much a part of this season.
Creatively,
the departure of Lex has opened the doors
for the show's producers to bring in other
characters from the DC Comics universe. To
fill that void, they looked to the character
of Doomsday, killer of Superman from the classic
1992 comic book. "We needed a foe that
was as great as Lex, and there are very few
of those out there, so we brought in Doomsday
who's going to be a great part of the season,"
Peterson says.
"And
we brought in Tess who's going to be a formidable
opponent for pretty much everybody on the
cast at some point," Kelly Souders adds.
"I think as much as we lost tremendously
in Al and Miles, we're still in communication
with them, and they've been really supportive.
Obviously, we took some massive hits this
year, but in a strange way it sort of forced
everyone to look at the show differently,
which I think you don't often have an opportunity
like that after 7 seasons. It allowed the
writers to walk in with a blank slate in some
ways and look at how to reinvigorate and reinvent
the show, the characters, the situations,
the relationships. We're actually all very
energized. I haven't seen the writer's room
as energized in a while. Not that we weren't
really passionate about it before, but I think
it's just forced everyone to think [deeper]."
Also
on tap for Season 8 is more interaction between
Lois and Clark. "The dynamic of Clark
and Lois at the Daily Planet, when the dailies
are coming in, is fantastic," Peterson
enthuses. "It's iconic, and it's exactly
what those two actors feel like they were
meant to do. They are just great together,
and watching Clark and Lois together in the
way that we're used to seeing them from everything
that we remember, I think, is making it a
really fun show this year."
Peterson
is quick to point out that Season 8 will not
be a rehash of the 1990's TV series Lois
& Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
"That isn't the feel of our show and
isn't the characters that people have gotten
to know on our show. I think as they work
together you see the tension and the sparks
fly which is really fun, but it's all born
out of the same Clark Kent that we know, and
the same Lois that we know on our show, so
there is not a change in tone on the show
in any way," he says.
Previous
reports have had Erica Durance signed for
the usual 12-13 episodes of her contract,
though Peterson says there are always possibilities
for more. "We have an option for her
to do more, and what's great is she is really
present in all of the episodes so far. She's
front and center and is doing a great job.
So yes, there's an opportunity for more,"
he says.
The
relationship between Clark and Lois's
cousin, Chloe, will also come into play
early in the season. "We definitely
have an episode this year that addresses
a lot of the underlying tension, the
sexual tension, the love tension between
the two of them. So we do definitely
touch on it this year," Peterson
says. "It's also a season for all
of the characters across the board to
move on to the next phase of their life
which is kind of exciting. So there's
a lot of some sense of leaving the past
behind and moving to the next part of
the Superman mythology," Souders
adds.
The
romantic situation isn't the only thing
Clark will have to explore this year.
"Up until this point, we haven't
done a lot with Clark trying to balance
the double identity of Clark Kent and
this Superman figure, so this year is
very much about double identity and
him learning the balance of that because
that's a long journey in itself that
we haven't even touched on really until
now," Peterson reveals.
During
the Comic-Con panel, Brian Peterson commented
that Supernatural would be the show
he would most like to see Smallville cross
over with. As there are many who are fans
of both shows, is that actually a possibility?
"We
never cross anything out," Kelly Souders
says. "We haven't talked about it in
these first two months that we've been hitting
the ground running on season 8," she
reveals. "It was talked about in previous
seasons, so it is in the realm of possibility,"
Peterson teases.
Season
Eight marks the promotion of Peterson and
Souders in addition to Todd Slavkin and Darren
Swimmer as the series' new executive producers/showrunners.
This team seems ready for the challenge, and
they don't intend to change the show too drastically.
"The great thing for the four of us since
we've been on the show as long as we have,
it sounds kind of cliche but these characters
and the world and the show have a life of
it's own, and so you can't come in and do
a 90 degree turn, even if that's your intent
because the characters are so true to themselves
and I think our cast does such an amazing
job of embodying the characters that they
really live as real people. So when we talk
about all of the changes, it's probably more
of an evolution than a change," Souders
says. "I think Allison has been such
a great Chloe and she will always be that
Chloe. This year, it's just about opening
her world up a little bit more. Same thing
with Clark Kent. So I think that show has
been successful based on it's ability to kind
of give us an origin story of Superman that
felt real but also had some reinterpretations
in it. So I think we're just following in
those footsteps that Al and Miles created
for us. Clark Kent's still the same Clark
Kent, we just wanted to get him closer to
the Superman that we know, that the general
public is more familiar with."
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Creatively,
the departure of Lex has opened the doors
for the show's producers to bring in other
characters from the DC Comics universe. To
fill that void, they looked to the character
of Doomsday, killer of Superman from the classic
1992 comic book. "We needed a foe that
was as great as Lex, and there are very few
of those out there, so we brought in Doomsday
who's going to be a great part of the season,"
Peterson says.
"We
never cross anything out," Kelly Souders
says. "We haven't talked about it in
these first two months that we've been hitting
the ground running on season 8," she
reveals. "It was talked about in previous
seasons, so it is in the realm of possibility,"
Peterson teases.