Smallville

Tom Welling Confirms He Didn’t Want To Go Full-On Superman In The Smallville Finale

Tom Welling reveals the thinking behind the lack of full-on Superman in the Smallville finale.

Published

8 years ago

August 8, 2017

It is a subject that has been debated among Smallville fans for years: A significant number of them insist that Tom Welling would have done the whole “Superman costume” thing in the 2011 Smallville series finale if that was asked of him.

Now, six years later, Tom did a fairly extensive interview with Entertainment Weekly where he talks about the reasons why he did not want to.

“It was something that we discussed before we ever shot the pilot with [creators] Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar],” Welling told EW about the genesis of the whole “no flights, no tights” thing that brought him to the series. “We literally had a sit down where we talked about the show and I asked about the suit and the tights and the flying, and they said, ‘No, absolutely not,’ part of the reason being is that show is about a teenager trying to figure out who he is. They felt that once Clark put on the cape and the suit, life became too easy, in a sense. They wanted to focus on who this character was before that. And, at the time, because of where visual effects and special effects and stunts were, it would be too expensive. That’s mainly why they save that for movies, more or less.”

As for the series finale, which gave fans only a shirt-rip that left many disappointed, Welling wouldn’t say it was his decision, but it sounds a lot like it. “It was literally something that the entire series was behind in not doing that,” he said. “We did things on that show where we didn’t call them powers, we called them abilities — you weren’t allowed to say powers; you just weren’t because Clark didn’t know they were powers, he just knew he had those abilities, so little things like kept us grounded and kept us faced onto the story we were telling about this character, not what he could do with these abilities.”

Welling also dropped the bombshell that there was an idea for Clark to suit up earlier in the series finale, where we’d see full-on Superman, and he was instrumental in making suer it didn’t happen. “Our series finale was supposed to be, in the first act, Clark puts on the suit and flies around, saves Lois on a plane, and does this other stuff,” Welling revealed. “It was a call that I had with Peter Roth, who is the head of Warner Bros. Television, who’s a good friend of mine and we have a great relationship. I said, ‘That’s not our show, Peter.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s going to be great,’ and I go, ‘Yeah, but just think about what we’ve been doing. If we just jump into that, we haven’t earned it.’”

In the end, the actor was happy with the decision they made to end with a shirt rip. “We jumped onto this idea that at the end of the show, the idea is that Clark becomes Superman and he’s out there, and we know he’s out there, but we can’t go with him, but that we know and we feel good that he’s out there doing good,” he said. “That was what we strove for, and I think we hit it. I liked the ending of the series, because it’s like, ‘Yes, he did it!’ I hope the audience didn’t feel like we didn’t show them something that they needed to see. I felt like we gave them the jumping off point for their imagination as to what could happen.”

You can read the complete Entertainment Weekly interview here. Our thanks again to Zach from Always Hold On To Smallville for the heads-up, and if you’d like to talk about this with other fans, the KryptonSite forums still exist!

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Photo: Tom Welling At The FOX Summer 2017 All-Star Party

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2 Comments

Rob Lopez

August 8, 2017 at 7:08 pm

You did earn it, Tom. Do a Superman limited series under the Smallville banner and you will see how many of us are behind you.

Reply
Christina

August 8, 2017 at 8:50 pm

We wanted the suit, Tom! I hope his decision didn’t change it so much to let Tess Mercer die. That’s why I didn’t re-watch the finale. I think it would be far greater with the way it was originally written. Come on Tom! Climax!

Reply

Smallville

Revealed: Possible Smallville Cameos in James Gunn’s Superman!

A leaked call sheet may have revealed Smallville stars’ presence in James Gunn’s new Superman film

Published

3 weeks ago

April 1, 2025

Craig Byrne

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.

Frequent scooper “DavidRPM” hinted a few weeks back that he had heard that several Superman-related cameos would factor into the new film — more than just the appearance of Christopher Reeve’s son Will Reeve making an appearance. Nothing else surfaced about this rumor until the last day when the photos surfaced from the filming of the movie last year, though there was the report that every Supergirl actress to date would appear in Supergirl: The Woman of Tomorrow in one way or another.

What’s in those photos?

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!!!

See you on July 11!

Smallville

Smallville Animated Update: It May Be A While…

On TalkVille, the reality of the current status of the Smallville animated project was discussed.

Published

1 month ago

March 19, 2025

Craig Byrne

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.

Smallville

John Schneider Added To Salute to Smallville 2025 in Chicago!

John Schneider has been added to the 2025 Salute to Smallville convention in Chicago from Creation Entertainment.

Published

2 months ago

February 13, 2025

Craig Byrne

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.