Can you believe it has now been eight years since the series finale of Smallville aired on The CW?
The two-hour event aired May 13, 2011 and brought Michael Rosenbaum back to our screens as Lex Luthor. Clark Kent embraced his destiny, even if we didn’t get to see a lot of it on screen. Lots of old faces returned, and the John Williams fanfare ended it all.
In the years since, we’ve seen Tom Welling return to TV on Lucifer Season 3 and he’s finally embracing fandom and attending conventions, which many of his co-stars are doing. When he’s not appearing in big movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Michael Rosenbaum has become an incredible interviewer with his Inside of You podcast. Kristin Kreuk had a hit show with Beauty and the Beast and is now back on our screens with Burden of Truth.Erica Durance starred in Saving Hope and even had a recurring role on Supergirl;Laura Vandervoort also appeared on Supergirl in addition to her series leading role in Bitten.
Justin Hartley‘s career exploded when he became a part of one of broadcast TV’s biggest hits, This Is Us; the show was just renewed for a whopping three seasons. Annette O’Toole dipped into the Marvel Universe for a role on The Punisher; meanwhile, John Glover played a Lionel Luthor-like role in this year’s Shazam. Cassidy Freeman had a multi-season part as one of the leads on Longmire; Aaron Ashmore stars in Syfy’s Killjoys. John Schneider stars in The Haves and Have Nots, though he has had some troubles including the creation of a studio that was severely affected by floods.
Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have run two successful series in recent years – The Shannara Chronicles and Into The Badlands. That is in addition to their movie work – I Am Number Four felt very Smallville in many of the best ways.
The post-Smallville life hasn’t been perfect for some. Allison Mack‘s association with the NXIVM “sex cult” has put the actress under a magnifying glass which also sadly has probably affected some perceptions of the TV series and Chloe’s role in it. The ultimate result of Allison’s troubles will be decided in New York courts; fortunately, Mack seems repentant for the things that went on.
It’s also incredible to note that while Smallville, near the end there, seemed unappreciated by then-CW head Dawn Ostroff, her successor Mark Pedowitz seems to love DC superhero shows. Arrow started the next generation of series which will balloon to a whopping six series in the 2019-2020 season, including The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and, premiering this Fall, Batwoman. Can you imagine the alternate universe where Smallville could have inspired or led to so many spinoffs?
It is not just The CW that is in on all this action, either. There’s a Super-show on Syfy about Superman’s grandfather called Krypton, and the DC Universe subscription service, while not having Smallville (that’s on Hulu), has added series about the Titans, Stargirl, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing.
But long before we had a leafy Swamp Thing back on our TV screens, it all started with a leafy little hamlet.
As we all know, even here at KryptonSite, years ago, we had an April Fool’s gag that Michael Rosenbaum would be playing Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s Superman film, out July 11 of this year. But, of course, that was just an April Fool’s fake story, but if some photos posted on Reddit are to be believed, we may be seeing Gunn’s personal friend Michael as well as his “TalkVille” cohost Tom Welling in the new movie which will star David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
Pictures of trailers saying “T.W.” and “M.R.” on the doors, which may not be the smoking gun we might need, but they do seem like a code if they don’t really want onlookers to know what’s going on…
But then…. there was a call sheet. Oh, there was a call sheet! And in said call sheet, in addition to several members of the principal cast reporting for duty that day – specifically, the Daily Planet gang – there are the roles of “Funky Flashman” and “Bibbo.”
The actors playing them? “M. Rosenbaum” and “T. Welling.”
Folks, we’re going to get to see our duo on the big screen!!!!
Because we don’t want Warner Bros. Legal breathing down our necks — that is, if they still exist and haven’t been all excised from their jobs by David Zaslav — you’re going to have to go to the original Reddit post which you can find here. Some other reveals might be within, so don’t say we didn’t warn you!!!
On a recent episode of Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling’s TalkVille podcast, they had the show’s creator Al Gough as a call-in guest, and among the topics discussed was the Smallville animated project that they’ve been trying to get off the ground. Unfortunately, Gough brought up the reality that especially with regime changes at the studio, it may be a while.
“Regime change” refers to changes in leadership at the studio or network. As an example, the regime changed massively when Smallville moved from The WB (who had executives that loved them) to The CW (where Dawn Ostroff was more interested in “pretty rich white girls with problems” shows and kept trying to kill Smallville).
“The problem with most projects in development in any studio and any network is regime change, and Warners has obviously gone through a lot, and I think the fact that they’re in the process of rebooting Superman again, unfortunately, I think, keeps our thing off the table for a bit,” Gough said in discussion with the actors. He pointed out that everything comes around in one form or another, pointing to Hulu’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival as such a thing.
So, don’t give up hope… but for now, it seems it’s not happening anytime soon, if at all.
John Schneider is the latest actor to be added to the guest list for Creation Entertainment’s second “Salute To Smallville” convention, happening September 13-14 in Chicago. Schneider portrayed Clark’s human father Jonathan Kent from Seasons 1-5 and returned for several episodes in the show’s final season.
Schneider will be joining Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance, John Glover, Aaron Ashmore, Adrianne Palicki, and Alaina Huffman at this year’s event! Last year’s convention was a fantastic experience and it’s well worth checking out! You can read more about Salute to Smallville and purchase tickets here.
DISCLAIMER: KryptonSite’s Craig Byrne has created web graphics and websites for Creation Entertainment in addition to hosting their 2024 Salute to Smallville event.