Comic-Con 2009: Interview With Smallville Executive Producers Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders
Interview By Craig Byrne - KryptonSite Webmaster

Following the Smallville panel at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, several cast members and producers from the show participated in roundtable interviews with various outlets including KryptonSite. Here, we speak with Executive Producers Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders about what to expect from the new season.

Questions are in bold and answers are not. "BP" listed below is Brian Peterson; "KS" is Kelly Souders. Please do not reproduce this interview onto other forums without a link to KryptonSite.com, and please only use snippets with a link rather than re-posting the whole thing. Thanks!

What can the fans look forward to the most in Season 9?

BP: The Lois/Clark/Blur love triangle, and the training that Clark is going to start toward being Superman. No spandex but we're definitely one step closer.

There has been some concern from fans of the Chloe character that she is very rarely offered happy moments anymore. Will she see any happiness this year?

BP: Oh yes.

KS: Yeah. This season, Chloe has a real goal and she's really dedicated toward that goal. For her it's a season of a lot of self-satisfaction, and we'll see the Chloe that was at the Torch with the computers, and where that has taken her over these years, and how incredibly powerful she becomes.

BP: It's her maturation into the DC Universe.

Was her evolution into "Watchtower" something that was always in the plan for her character?

BP: We keep going back to the pilot for the seeds of where we go. We always go back to the roots. I don't know that it's where they envisioned, but it seems a natural progression of who she is.

How do you balance the physically strong males with the mentally strong females on the show?

KS: I think in the writer's room we don't look at it quite that way. I think the women on the show have their moments where they really kick ass and we love that, but I think that it's very fun to write for these very driven women, who can handle people dying left and right, with monsters coming after them, and they just get back up. I think the guys on the show are developing emotionally to balance out their physical strength.

How long will it be before we see some more characters from the DC Universe, beyond Metallo and Major Zod?

BP: In Episode 4, you see the return of a DC villain. Episode 5 has two that we can't announce right now because they're not cast yet. Episode 6 has Roulette from the DC Universe. We're bringing in a bunch.

Are you concerned with the break-up of the Thursday Smallville/Supernatural block?

KS: It wasn't our decision, but you know what? We're actually really excited about it. We loved our block with Supernatural. Eric Kripke and the whole gang over there are fantastic, and we're actually in the same building. But our move to Friday - I think it's a challenge, and everybody's up for it and excited. Friday used to be a night that a lot of people thought was a show being put out to pasture, but Dollhouse is on Friday nights, as is Ghost Whisperer. It's not the same as it used to be, and [hopefully] we can launch a Friday night for The CW.

Now that Tom Welling is a producer for the show, will he ever be writing for the series?

KS: I don't know when he has time to breathe, to be honest.

BP: His joining is really organic. He's helped shape his character from the very start, and the last couple of years he's gotten a lot more involved with directing. So there's not a huge shift; he's just getting the credit that he's actually earned in the last couple of years.

KS: He's a really great link between the writing staff, the producers, and the set, and he's been keeping an eye on things also, since he's had so much experience directing. He's really a valuable source, along with being the lead of the show.

Are there any guest stars that you're looking forward to seeing?

KS: Brian Austin Green. We've been watching all of his dailies coming in, and I think fans are going to be very thrilled with them. He makes an amazing Metallo.

BP: And Callum [Blue] as Zod, although we have him for most of the season. Just in the dailies we've seen already, he's fantastic. We really see how he becomes Terence Stamp.

KS: And he brings a lot of depth. Smallville is really interested in the origin stories of characters, so to explore why he's going to become a villain, nurture vs. nature and all of those aspects... it's a lot of fun to watch.

Is there any chance Kristin Kreuk will be returning as Lana?

BP: We love Kristin. I would never say never, but it is not in the plan right now.

Will we see Martha Kent?

KS: We talk about her all the time, because Annette's just fantastic, and brought so much to the show. It's always just about timing and what's going on with the characters.

BP: And with both Kristin and Annette, we really try to bring characters into the show that are integral into Clark's development. They both played massive roles in his high school; but their role in his trajectory is kind of over at this point. We've love to bring them in, but I think he's got new lessons that he's learning.

KS: It's kind of lining up more with the comics.

What inspired you to put Clark in a costume of some sort this season?

BP: It came out of the character and the story that we had in the finale. For the first time really, there was a big question about whether Clark did the right thing or not, and that has propelled him in one direction, and giving up being Clark Kent, just embracing being a hero so he doesn't get emotinonally attached; and Oliver Queen has been propelled in the opposite direction. They're both making opposite choices.

Was this done because of the viewers who complained that he wasn't yet in costume?

KS: Well, obviously the fans are our #1 concern, always. Like Brian said, we go back to the pilot constantly. It's really our mantra, and the pilot is really about how does he get from being this freshman dorky kid in high school to becoming the world's greatest superhero. It's really about that journey. That moment has been covered many times very successfully, so we're really just trying to fill in and give a three dimensionality to that arc before he puts on the tights and he's fully embraced who he is.

Can you talk about Erica Durance having more episodes this season?

BP: We had all intentions last year, and it just didn't end up happening, and we're excited this year, because she plays a little more pivotal role in the show.

KS: One thing that's different about her character this season is that Lois actually is part of the mythology. She plays an interesting role, which sends Clark and Lois on this trajectory where they just have to crash into each other in order for him to be who he needs to be by the end of the season. We're excited about that.

What does he need to do by the end of the season?

BP: You will have tiny flashes in the premiere. Lois will start having visions as to what the future holds after she comes back with the Legion ring, and [she sees] what the world will be if Clark doesn't fix things.

Is Clark going to deal with more of his responsibilities?

KS: I think it's part of his training. We're going to bring Jor-El and the Fortress back. Last year was all about becoming human and having these two identities, but "how do I create a human disguise?" This season, it's much more about embracing the fact that he is an alien, that he was sent here for a reason, and he is supposed to save the world. He has that much greater destiny, and for the first time he's really whole-heartedly embraced that side of him.

BP: We've pitched that this year is Clark's darkest hour as he's struggling with that, but the show is not really going to be dark. We have a lot of fun with Lois and Clark in the Daily Planet. We have a couple of really fun episodes coming up. We're not plunging through darkness; just that he has a deep, dark decision that he has to make with balancing his Kryptonian side.

You can see the Smallville season premiere Friday, September 25 on The CW.

Read more Comic-Con interviews: Erica Durance (Lois) - Allison Mack (Chloe) - Callum Blue (Zod) - Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders (Smallville Executive Producers) - Cassidy Freeman (Tess)

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