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.
With
Clark's journey to Super-manhood, it's not
surprising that he will be meeting more characters
from the DC Comics universe of characters.
Slavkin reveals that the second episode of
Season Eight is titled "Plastique,"
featuring a character from the Captain
Atom comic book series. "She is somewhat
of a human bomb, and we give a Smallville
twist on her. It's not truly her origin
story, but when she was young. She comes in
as a teen runaway. We've cast a great actress
for her, and the fans will love her,"
he says.
The
fourth episode of Season Eight, "Instinct,"
is confirmed to feature the character Maxima,
who is described as an "intergalactic
sex goddess." "Smallville
always needs an intergalactic sex goddess,"
Slavkin laughs.
"She
can't mate with a human, so where's she going
to go? I'll leave that up to your imagination,"
Swimmer teases.
"There
are many, many other
possibilities that we're very excited about,
but we can't say now. I can say that there
will be more [DC characters] for sure,"
Slavkin says. "The Martian Manhunter
is on the show now for at least three episodes
this season. The whole Justice League will
pick up in the season premiere, and they will
play a bigger role this season, and it's going
to be really exciting."
"
One [criticism of] Clark Kent is that he's
always been reactive in our show. His decision
to go to the Daily Planet is his way of saying,
'I've got to use my powers to help people.'
So when the guy in the audience [of the Comic-Con
panel] was talking about testosterone, we're
like, you want to see some testosterone? He's
going out there. He's looking for it. I think
the fans, Superman fans, will be delighted
with that," Slavkin says.
"There's
an interesting dynamic between the Green Arrow
and him because Green Arrow was always the
person nudging him and kind giving him a little
kick in the butt to go out and be more proactive,
and sort of accept his destiny more,"
Swimmer reveals. "So whle Clark, in season
eight, is really accepting his destiny more,
the Green Arrow's going to start questioning
what his destiny really is and what kind of
superhero he really wants to be. There's going
the be that interesting dynamic going on there."
During
the panel at the Comic-Con International,
and in other interviews, the showrunners have
been reluctant to label Season 8 as the final
year, and one journalist asked if a ninth
season would be possible without the participation
of Tom Welling, who is signed for only eight
years. "At this point we really want
Tom to come back," Slavkin says. "At
this point, it's early in the season, and
contracts come up all the time for renewal.
We're hoping that he'll stay on. It's difficult
to call the show Smallville without
Tom. I mean you could call the show something
else and I think a spin-off could be an awesome
idea, and we have many ideas and we've talked
about that, but to call it Smallville,
it feels a little unfair, I think, to the
fans," he says.
On
the subject of departures, the character of
Tess Mercer will be coming onto the series
to fill the villainous void left after Michael
Rosenbaum's exit from the show. "She's
brand new from scratch, but she's a nod to
both Tessmacher, hence Tess, and then her
last name Mercer, which is a nod to Mercy
from the comic books. So she's neither Tessmacher
nor Mercy; we're taking a little bit of both,
but the storyline and who she is and where
she came from and where she's going, that's
all completely new," Swimmer teases.
"But
her license plate says 'Mercy',"
Slavkin adds, letting out a spoiler.
"And that's all you need to know.
This is a girl you don't miss with."
Slavkin
also has great things to say about the
actress playing Tess, Cassidy Freeman.
"What we love about her is you
haven't seen her face everywhere and
she's very fresh," he says. "I
got goosebumps watching the premiere,"
he reveals, saying that they saw a quick
assemblage of the first episode before
heading to San Diego. "We were
all relieved and ecstatic and it really
came together, and we just cannot stop
watching her. She's remarkable. I think
the fans are really going to like her,"
he raves.
"She
hit the stage, day one, and nailed it,"
Swimmer adds. "And we were, I mean as
you can imagine, now that Michael Rosenbaum's
not on the show, we were wondering if we could
get somebody with the layers that [he would
bring] and I think that Cassidy really, really
does that."
"You
can never fill his shoes. You can never be
Michael Rosenbaum, and you can never be Lex
Luthor. But she makes it her own," Slavkin
concludes.
For
the fan feedback, Slavkin and Swimmer do say
that they read what is being said by the fans.
"Positive
or negative, we love to hear what the fans
think," Swimmer says. "We don't
sit there and say 'let's not watch.' We really
love to see what the fans are saying, and
obviously we can't respond to it; we have
to do what our vision is, but by knowing how
the fans are reacting, it's really a valuable
thing that we have now. It's amazing; our
fan base is so passionate."
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With
Clark's journey to Super-manhood, it's not
surprising that he will be meeting more characters
from the DC Comics universe of characters.
Slavkin reveals that the second episode of
Season Eight is titled "Plastique,"
featuring a character from the Captain
Atom comic book series. "She is somewhat
of a human bomb, and we give a Smallville
twist on her. It's not truly her origin
story, but when she was young. She comes in
as a teen runaway. We've cast a great actress
for her, and the fans will love her,"
he says. 