Smallville Star Provides Update On Animated Series Revival

Key Takeaways

Smallville stars are eager for an animated sequel but are awaiting approval from DC and Warner Bros.
The majority of original cast members want to voice their characters.
Timing and DC universe strategy shifts are factors delaying the Smallville revival.

The long-rumored Smallville revival has received an update from one of its key stars. Tom Welling recently addressed the status of the potential Smallville sequel, which would see the Superman origin story continue in animated series form.

Smallville began telling the origin story of Superman back in 2001 and ended up lasting 10 seasons before it finished in 2011. The series put a high school lens on the classic DC Comics hero and showed how Clark Kent went from teenage farm boy to Metropolis’ savior. Tom Welling was cast in the lead role as Clark Kent, with other young iterations of DC characters also included in the show, such as Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk), Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), Lois Lane (Erica Durance), and Jonathan and Martha Kent (John Schneider and Annette O’Toole). The series ended in Season 10 with Clark fulfilling his destiny as Superman and wearing the suit for the first time. However, this wasn’t the end of the road for the series as Smallville received an eleventh season in the form of a comic book run back in 2013, and stars Welling and Durance briefly reprised their roles as Clark and Lois for DC TV’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Should DC Return to Smallville?

Returning to the fan favorite Smallville universe with Tom Welling as an older Clark wouldn’t hurt the DCU but deciding which story to tell could.

Rumors of a Smallville animated revival trace back to 2021, when Tom Welling announced on Cameo that he and Rosenbaum were developing the series together and planned to pitch it to Warner Bros. The duo have remained friends since their days on the show and regularly host the Talkville podcast where they revisit and discuss each episode of Smallville. In a recent interview with Screen Rant, Welling provided an update on the Smallville animated series, revealing “We just need the go-ahead from DC and Warner Bros.” The actor confirmed they had the support of original creators and writers, Al Gough and Miles Millar, who want to write the project, but that the duo are currently tied up working on Netflix’s Wednesday.

This is a passion project. It’s not going to be a blockbuster, it’s for the fans. All the actors want to do the voices of the characters – we’re all in. We just need them to let us use the property.

Welling added that the majority of cast members are eager to return. “All the actors want to do the voices of the characters – we’re all in.” His co-star, Michael Rosenbaum, echoed his sentiments in a Screen Rant interview earlier in the year, saying “The whole cast would like to do it. They would voice their own character from the show, and we have a concept of what the show is.”

It appears that the only thing holding the Smallville animated series back right now is timing. Plenty of projects were upended in Hollywood last year due to the Writer’s and Actor’s Guild Strikes, which impacted Wednesday Season 2 and no doubt slowed down any work on the Smallville project as well. There’s also the fact that the DC universe is currently undergoing a massive shift in trajectory under James Gunn, meaning the time needs to be right for Smallville to return. Rosenbaum and Gunn are close friends in real life, with Rosenbaum appearing in many of Gunn’s films, including Guardians of the Galaxy, so the project does have that advantage. At any rate, it is promising to see that the Smallville animated series is still alive after all these years and that its stars are passionate about the series’ return.