This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the longest-running superhero adaptations in television history, The CW’s Smallville, which lasted an impressive 10 seasons. (It actually began on The WB and continued when that network merged with UPN to form The CW.) The series focused on a young Clark Kent, beginning during his high school years, and later onto his early reporting days, before he officially became Superman. (Although most would agree that the series lasted well into the time during which he SHOULD have become the Man of Steel.)
While there don’t appear to be any plans to commemorate Smallville this year– most DC TV fans have moved on to the Arrowverse– there may be plans for a future revival.
Tom Welling, who played Clark Kent, revealed in a Cameo video message:
TOM WELLING IS BACK AS SUPERMAN FOR A SMALLVILLE ANIMATED SERIES….SOMEBODY SAAAAAAAVE MEpic.twitter.com/cQbgkTjIHB
— BLURAYANGEL (@blurayangel) June 24, 2021
There is definitely more story to tell, as Rosenbaum left the series after the seventh season, although he did pop up for the final season. Fellow original cast member, Kristin Kreuk, who played Lana Lang, also departed after S7, although she recurred during S8. Fans would surely love to discover what became of Lana. Other regular cast members included Erica Durance as Lois Lane, Cassidy Freeman as Tess Mercer, and Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow.
Unfortunately, Allison Mack, who played Chloe Sullivan on all ten seasons, probably won’t be available, as she is facing a minimum of 15 years in prison for being one of the ringleaders of the NXIVM sex cult, an organization she was allegedly involved with during her time on Smallville.
At this point, it sounds as though this is a project that Rosenbaum and Welling are working on independently and not something that has an actual order from an outlet. But this could easily work on The CW Seed, except it seems that that is being phased out as more and more Warner Bros. projects are shifting over to HBO Max. But that could also be a suitable home for an animated Smallville revival, provided WB sees a demand for it.
Is this something you’d like to see? It might be time to start making some noise to support it!
