KryptonSite
Comic-Con Report: Todd Slavkin & Darren
Swimmer Talk Season 8! After
the Smallville panel at the Comic-Con
International in San Diego, the participating
actors and producers spoke with members of
the press about the upcoming season, and we
are now happy to share with you an interview
with two of the show's new executive producers,
Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer,
from their roundtable discussion.
Thanks
go out to "Routh" for the transcription
assist.
To
begin the interview, Slavkin and Swimmer talked
about their time on Smallville prior
to their recent promotion and their intention
to stay true to the show's vision. "We've
been involved with the show since season two,"
Slavkin says, "so
much of the plot elements and the key plot
elements, we've had something to do with."
"The
Smallville fan means a lot to us,"
Slavkin continues, "so it would be irresponsible
for us to say, 'okay, let's do a show where
Superman's on heroin'... I say that, obviously,
as a metaphor. What we want to do is honor
what those guys did, but put or own spin.
And I think when you all see the premiere
this year, you'll see and you'll feel the
four of us. The four of us wrote the script
together, which is an unusual thing but we
kind of wanted to put our imprint on it. It's
our chance to mix things up yet we really
want to honor our fans."
"There's
a certain amount of 'What would Al and Miles
do'?" Darren Swimmer reveals. "Part
of it's built in, just from working with them
for so many years. We know the different things
that make Smallville unique as a TV
show, and we adhere to that."
"We
want to continue the legacy," Slavkin
adds. "We don't want to create our new
show. Our egos are less important than the
Smallville vision."
Having
four people running the Smallville
ship is a collaborative effort. "The
four of us [Slavkin, Swimmer, Kelly Souders,
and Brian Peterson] have been working together
since season two, so we're really comfortable
with this partnership. It may seem strange
to have four people working together, but
we've been in the trenches and we've come
up through the show together. I think what
we're going to do is each one of us is going
to be doing a little bit of everything,"
Swimmer says.
"We
talk a gazillion times a day, and because
we're both in teams we're both very collaborative
from the get-go," Slavkin explains. "When
the four of us come together, all of our strengths,
all of our own creative quirks come together,
and I feel like the sum is more powerful than
us as individuals, and you'll see it in different
episodes. What's awesome is we're very different,
so even though we all create each episode,
once that's done, one of us will often run
point on that episode. So, the day to day,
the producing of that specific show will run
under one of us, but that doesn't mean the
creation of the show isn't a total collaboration,"
he says.
One
call-back to the show's earlier times
comes with the return of Kristin Kreuk
as Lana Lang for five episodes of the
series, most likely airing during November
sweeps. "We can't wait. It's going
to come at a very bad time for Clark,"
Slavkin reveals. "She will look
different. Visually, it will not be
the Lana Lang that we're used to seeing.
We're very excited," he says.
"Of
course, she'll be just as beautiful
as always," Darren Swimmer adds.
[Reports say Kristin Kreuk has cut her
hair to be very short].
"She's
grown up," Todd reveals. "She's
left Smallville and she's going to come back
a woman. Obviously, she was a woman since
she got married, but she's [still] a kid.
She was living in the same town her whole
life. This is her chance to come back with
a stronger point of view than she ever has
[had]," he says.
As
for Clark, he has "basically denied that
there's anything going on with a superhero
in Smallville or Metropolis," Swimmer
says. "When the question's ever asked,
it's always just sort of this mystery. This
season's going to be fun for us because it's
going to reach a point where he can't deny
that there's somebody out there saving people.
I think that that's a key change in the mythology
of of Clark Kent," he reveals. "It's
a big change for him to actually say, 'Yes.
It's not me, but there's something out there,'
and that's the beginning of his double identity."
Clark
will also have extra super-heroing challenges
with having Lois and Jimmy at his side most
of the time. "All
I can say is, Jimmy Olsen does have a camera,
and Lois is very curious, you know, and if
they're working side by side you can see that
those worlds are going to collide," Slavkin
teases.
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One
call-back to the show's earlier times
comes with the return of Kristin Kreuk
as Lana Lang for five episodes of the
series, most likely airing during November
sweeps. "We can't wait. It's going
to come at a very bad time for Clark,"
Slavkin reveals. "She will look
different. Visually, it will not be
the Lana Lang that we're used to seeing.
We're very excited," he says.