Actor Tom Welling recently surprised DC fans when he suggested that his Clark Kent from the Arrowverse‘s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event was not the same version of the character he portrayed in all 10 seasons of The CW’s Smallville.
Welling was one of many DC legacy actors to appear in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, although his role in the crossover event was considerably larger than other returning stars. His cameo, which occurred in the Batwoman episode of the crossover, saw his Clark Kent coming face-to-face with the Lex Luthor from the Supergirl series, played by Jon Cryer. The memorable scene also featured Erica Durance, reprising her role from Smallville as Lois Lane.
While the writers of the Arrowverse crossover have previously shared that this is the same Clark and Lois from Smallville, Welling isn’t so sure about that claim. On the latest episode of the Smallville rewatch podcast, Talk Ville (via Screen Rant), Welling revealed to his co-host/ Smallville co-star Michael Rosenbaum that he had turned down multiple offers to return as Clark Kent/Superman in other DC projects before agreeing to return in 2019 for the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover.
“I was asked to be in a lot of the other shows after Smallville ended, I was asked to sort of appear in them as Clark and it never felt like their tone was the same as Clark was or what Smallville was,” he explained. “I still believe that in the crossover what you see Clark doing and giving up his powers and being with Lois for their family, that might not be the Clark from Smallville because it’s a multiverse.”
Check out the latest Talk Ville episode below:
Tom Welling is working on a Smallville animated series
Welling didn’t elaborate further beyond his belief that his Arrowverse Clark is not the same as his Smallville Clark. However, he is likely making this distinction so that he is not beholden to what the crossover revealed about Clark’s post-Smallville adventures for the upcoming animated revival he is currently developing with Rosenbaum, specifically that Clark gave us his powers to live a normal life with Lois and their children.
Welling and Rosenbaum have been working on the animated Smallville revival since 2021. The last update on the project came in March 2024 from Rosenbaum, who shared that they are waiting for the right time to pitch the revival to DC Studios.
“We have Al and Miles, the creators of Smallville backing us up. When it’s the right time, we’d like to go and do this; pitch to Warner Bros. It has to be the right time, and right now is not the right time. We had the strike, we had a change of executives at DC — one being one of my best friends in the world, James Gunn,” Rosenbaum said. “When the time’s right, I think it’s something that’s a no-brainer, unless they have other ideas. We’d like to do it — 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.”
All ten seasons of Smallville are currently streaming on Hulu.
