As awesome as the Arrowverse may be, it’s important we not forget that none of it would’ve been possible without Smallville. It was a different beast, sure, but the series chronicling Clark Kent’s formative years as he embarked on his journey to becoming Superman set the stage for modern DC shows. After all, the reason Arrow happened in the first place was because Oliver Queen had been a breakout character on Smallville.
That said, the series’ ten-season run remains an impressive feat, not to mention that DC published a series of Smallville Season Eleven epilogue comics that not only showed us the Superman this version of Clark became, but also introduced characters like Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, none of which were able to be included on the TV show because of red tape separating WB’s motion picture and television divisions.
So, even though the legacy lived on for a few extra years in literary form, I’ve long hoped for some kind of truncated animated adaptation. I mean, adapting an entire run of comics would really be a massive undertaking!
Funny enough, there are other people who share that sentiment, one of which was in attendance at Awesome Con over the weekend. And thanks to this person, they were able to get the following response out of Tom Welling when asking if he’d return as Clark for a proper eleventh season – live action or animated – on DC’s upcoming streaming service:
“I mean, animated could be fun,” said the actor.
Short and sweet, sure, but Welling has made it known that he’s done playing Clark in live action, which is pretty much why he’s playing a markedly different character over on Lucifer right now. But, of course, animation is a different ballgame.
His former co-star, Michael Rosenbaum, had this to add:
“I said to Al [Gough, one of Smallville’s creators], we should do an animated Smallville. That would be huge! I mean, Smallville: The Animated Series, with all the real voices? And I wouldn’t have to shave my head! We’ve got to do that. Can you imagine us on mics doing the same dialogue?”
Now, Rosenbaum’s idea of simply redoing the original series in animated form seems to be a bit redundant, but seeing as how I and many fans still view him as being the definitive Lex Luthor, I’m sure that I’m not alone in saying that him reprising the role in some form would be much much appreciated.
Still, if an animated Smallville series were to get off the ground, one has to wonder if it’d adapt the Season Eleven comics we spoke of, or if it’d gloss them over and be its own thing. Either way, let’s hope word gets to the right people and this can be made a reality.