In late 2019, Smallville returned for one scene only in The CW’s multi-show Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, as Tom Welling and Erica Durance reprised their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane in an episode of Batwoman. The scene took place on “Earth-167” and was written by Smallville veterans Don Whitehead and Holly Henderson, but many fans were left wondering why we didn’t get to see that the characters from Smallville were restored at the end of the crossover, where we learned that other Earths such as the ones occupied by Swamp Thing, the Titans, and Brandon Routh’s Superman had been brought back into the multiverse by Stephen Amell’s Spectre.

Andy Behbakht of Multiverse of Color had Arrowverse showrunner Marc Guggenheim on his Showrunner Whisperer podcast which dropped part 1 today, and he addressed the omission.

“Why didn’t we have Smallville? I’ll be honest with you. I think it was two reasons,” Guggenheim responded. “Number one, it never occurred to me until I got the question on Twitter that people think we did blow up the Smallville universe. So part of it was that, and part of it was, we’d obviously seen Clark and Lois in episode two. For the most part, the ‘going around the horn’ [closing sequence] was to see all the universes and all the characters that we didn’t get to see,” he continued.

Guggenheim confirmed that if he had it to do all over again, that it would be “awesome” to have a shot of Lois and Clark on the farm kissing within that sequence. “But yeah, sorry, I dropped the ball on that,” he admitted. Additionally, under SAG rules, an actor gets paid for each episode they appear in, and Tom Welling was only contracted for the second episode. “We certainly didn’t have the money for that, but that really wasn’t a factor. It, quite frankly, just didn’t occur to me,” Marc said.

You can listen to the entire Showrunner Whisperer conversation with Marc Guggenheim here or on the YouTube embed below.

Four years later, fans are still discussing the return of Tom Welling as Smallville’s Clark Kent in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover that aired on The CW, and earlier this week, Tom Welling spoke about that opportunity at a live TalkVille event held in Hollywood.

“They had asked me to kind of bring Clark into some of the other shows, and it didn’t feel right,” Tom recalled. “But when they sent me [the “Crisis” script] they were like, ‘just read it.’ It was one scene, and I read it and I was like [sigh] ‘this is a really good idea’.”

Tom talked about how the Batwoman crew wasn’t familiar with the Kent Farm location, so he was helping them at the same time. But as for playing Clark again?

“It was really fun, because I was able to kind of bring Clark back again, but a little more grown up,” he said, noting that he tried to have mannerisms like John Schneider had as Clark’s human father Jonathan Kent on Smallville, with the gloves and the way he walked. “My favorite part of the whole thing was Jon Cryer and he says ‘I’m Lex Luthor’ and I’m like ‘you’re not Lex.” That line was a lot of fun… one of the easiest lines I’ve ever said, because this is Lex Luthor,” he continued, pointing at Michael Rosenbaum on stage.

Most importantly, Welling seems happy with where the Crisis on Infinite Earths story took Clark. 

“It was really great, and I thought as a fan of Clark, this fits the tone in which would see him again,” he affirmed.

You can watch video from the event below.

A highly anticipated moment from Crisis on Infinite Earths, often rumored but seemingly denied by producers and Tom Welling himself, seems to exist after all but sadly ended up on the cutting room floor before the most recent DC TV crossover hit the air, KryptonSite has learned.

Prior to the airing of the crossover, super-producer Greg Berlanti hinted that such a scene might exist, causing a lot of Internet speculation. “In one scene we have three Supermen on screen at one time and that’s pretty cool,” Berlanti told EXTRA. But when the show aired, the most Supermen per scene was two, with Brandon Routh and Tyler Hoechlin — so where was #3? And if there were really three Supermen in a scene, does that mean Smallville’s Tom Welling finally wore the suit?

Apparently two additional scenes were filmed that would have given us exactly that.

In one scene, airing in Chapter Two (Batwoman), the scene cuts back to the Kent Farm in Earth-167 as Clark and Lois are discussing his encounter with Lex, which reminds Clark of his past encounters with characters from other Earths, including other versions of himself and Lionel Luthor. “This is what I have to do,” he says before referencing going to see Jor-El and finding something called a “mirror box.” We wouldn’t see what happened next. Fans of Smallville will remember the “mirror box” from Season 10 as being the means in which people could travel the Multiverse.

But, in Chapter Three, which aired as an episode of The Flash, when many Earths are destroyed and Lyla/Harbinger (Audrey Marie Anderson) starts attacking the Monitor, Tom Welling’s Clark, mirror box in hand, shows up…. in a full Superman costume. Underpants on the outside and all. When you follow the link below, you’ll see a photo of the suit, and that it is not the costume worn in the Superman: Season Eleven comic books. It’s full-on Superman, and after 18 years, we finally would get what we’ve been waiting for. The other characters are as surprised as we are. Sadly, there’s no time for small talk as it’s full-on chaos, and when the red wave hits after everyone is taken away, this other Superman is gone, wiped away like Hoechlin’s Superman, Elongated Man, Iris West-Allen, and others.

So why didn’t we get this awesomeness on the air, especially since there were some Smallville fans unhappy with Clark’s “happy ending?”

Sadly, Crisis on Infinite Earths was a packed affair, with only so much time and space to fit everything in. Additionally, there were concerns that introducing Welling’s Superman in a series that was not his own 10-season show would be a bit of a cop-out, and Welling’s contract also required that if the costume scene actually aired, he would get a bonus of $100,000 — something that was just not in the already-high Crisis on Infinite Earths budget.

But now, with productions shut down and The CW wanting new content, some extra money could be found under the proverbial couch. So, before anyone starts hashtagging #ReleaseTheCostumeCut — you’re in luck. The Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover is re-airing the week of April 5 on The CW, and guess what? These scenes are restored. After 18 years, we will finally see Tom Welling in live action in a Superman costume. Not in a comic book with someone else’s face. The real steel deal. And, yes, the alternate version will be on the DVD’s.

Take a look at the official picture of Tom Welling in costume here, and be sure to catch Crisis on Infinite Earths Chapter Three Wednesday, April 8 to see Tom in costume at last!