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Michael Rosenbaum Discusses His Smallville Departure

Michael Rosenbaum discussed his departure from Smallville in a new interview with Katee Sackhoff.

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Michael Rosenbaum paid a visit to his friend Katee Sackhoff‘s podcast Blah Blah Blah with Katee Sackhoff for an hour-plus-long discussion about careers, life, on-screen kisses, and more. The part that might matter most to Smallville fans, though, is that Michael talked about his departure from the show after Season 7 as well as being known as the best Lex Luthor (a sentiment shared on this very website).

On the podcast, Michael discusses how he was originally only contracted for six seasons but did extend it to include a seventh. When the time came to sign on beyond that, he was ready to leave, but Warner Bros. Television President Peter Roth wanted to meet him for lunch, ostensibly to make an offer. Even though Michael had worked for Roth for over a decade, the interaction was “like the first time he ever met me,” Michael says.

According to Michael, Peter Roth proposed a three-year deal… for the exact same amount of money he was getting on his previous contract. “That was it,” he says. After that, he didn’t want to counter, and didn’t care what they’d offer afterward.  “That was it. I knew I had to respect myself, and it wasn’t worth it,” he recalls.

Which isn’t to say Smallville was a bad experience, despite having to play the same character for so many years. He always committed to and respected the role… and if people say he’s “known mostly as Lex Luthor,” that’s okay.

“F**k, yeah,” he says about that response. “If I’m known for that, and that’s the only thing in my life… that’s not awesome? I used to think ‘I’ve gotta do something better…’ How are you going to be better than playing a great character like that on a great show for so many years? Just to be lucky enough to be on a great show and be good in something is amazing. I honestly like that that’s how I’ll be remembered. That’s the best thing ever.”

At one point, Katie Sackhoff brings up the notion that many have named Michael as their favorite Lex Luthor — while Michael himself lists Gene Hackman as his favorite, the topic did also cover how even new DC Studios head (and personal friend to Michael) James Gunn has said that he was his favorite Lex Luthor. “It’s cool to see your peers and people you respect and admire, and your friends say that,” Michael says.

Michael isn’t Lex in the new Superman: Legacy film – that will be Nicholas Hoult – but Michael describes director James Gunn as “brilliant.” “I hope it’s brilliant,” he says about the movie, too. But no – it’s a different direction, and his friendship with Gunn doesn’t mean he would be guaranteed a part like that.

“That’s a thing that people think about this industry. They think you’re gonna meet someone and become friends with them, and they’re just gonna put you in everything. That does not happen. I’m here to say that that does not happen. It doesn’t mean that they’re not thinking of you; just [that] they have a vision for their projects, and sometimes it just doesn’t fit in their mind,” he says. (Gunn did use Michael in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, however, where he played Martinex.)

The entire podcast is a good listen; you can check it out embedded below.

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. QuntBizkit

    February 6, 2024 at 5:14 pm

    Peter Roth strikes me as a grade A tool

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Smallville

Smallville 25th Anniversary Convention: All Weekend Passes Now Available

The Salute to Smallville 25th Anniversary Convention in Nashville has made all weekend admission pass tiers available.

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We are as excited as everyone else around here for Creation Entertainment’s Salute to Smallville convention in November as it will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the show! KryptonSite’s Craig Byrne (that’s me!) is back to co-emcee the event with good friend and fellow enthusiast Derek Russell from The House of El. Guests for the show include Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance, Laura Vandervoort, John Glover, Sam Jones III, Helen Slater, Eric Johnson, Erica Cerra, Adrianne Palicki, and Phil Morris, with hopefully more to be announced!

Before today, only the highest-tier (and most expensive) Gold admission passes had been available for the November 6-7 event which will be happening in Nashville, Tennessee… but now, Silver, Copper, and very affordable General Admission passes are now being offered, making it a great time to hop on and plan a trip for later this year!

Salute to Smallville will feature Q&A panels with cast, autograph and photo opportunities, meet and greets, and much more…. and it’s a great opportunity to meet other people who loved and enjoyed Smallville as much as you have! For many of us, we’ve been watching for a quarter of a century!

Check it out – let’s get this event sold out!

 

DISCLAIMER: When he’s not working on websites for himself, Craig Byrne works on graphics and websites for Creation Entertainment, and as mentioned before, he is also one of the hosts of this event!

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April Fools

[APRIL FOOL’S 2026] The CW To Air Smallville 25th Anniversary Special (Exclusive)

The CW will be returning to the superhero game with a 25th anniversary special devoted to Smallville.

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NOTE: This is an April Fool’s Day post and the elements mentioned within are all a work of fiction… as far as we know.

The CW will be paying homage to one of its classics at a time when their current direction has been going far, far away.

The network, which was home to Smallville as well as such fan-favorite shows as Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Flash, Arrow and more, has mostly gone the way of acquired TV from other countries, reality TV, and sports since the Nexstar organization took control of The CW and reduced owners CBS (now Paramount) and Warner Bros. (soon to be part of Paramount themselves) to being minority share-holders… but that looks to change. Exercising their right to dictate at least part of the programming, and perhaps a precursor of things to come from The CW once the Paramount/WB merger happens, The CW has scheduled a Smallville 25th Anniversary TV special to air in June, five months before the actual anniversary which will hit in October.

The special will feature interviews with series stars Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Erica Durance, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, Laura Vandervoort, Cassidy Freeman and Justin Hartley and it will be hosted by Supernatural actor and Entertainment Tonight correspondent Matt Cohen. Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are also a part of the special, which will additionally include archival interviews and footage from the time of the series’ original run. The “SV25” logo created by Derek Russell for The House of El has been licensed by the special’s producers to be seen in the special. Fans including the author of this article were also interviewed for the feature, with interviews having been conducted at one of last year’s conventions. Never-before-seen deleted scenes from episodes of Smallville – ones that aren’t even on the DVD box sets – are expected to be unearthed.

If that’s not enough, the Smallville 25th Anniversary Special is rumored to have footage from the top-secret Smallville: Wall of Weird (working title) pilot episode that was shot last November for a streaming service. While it appears the project was completely buried in the wake of the Paramount/WB merger, we are told that the first episode was a hybrid of a reboot and a sequel, featuring Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, and Erica Durance in supporting roles with appearances by Kristin Kreuk and, for some reason, Eric Johnson, and that it was best described as “Smallville meets Stranger Things,” with a young cast investigating the strange occurrences in Smallville in the decades after its two meteor showers. Unfortunately, this might be the only footage we ever see from the series because of the previously-mentioned merger; additionally, there apparently are some legal/rights issues involved as well as a hesitation to have yet another take of Superman in live-action media while James Gunn has his movie franchise. Also, in a world where even Hulu has passed on new Buffy and Starfleet Academy is gone after only two seasons, it seems the studios and streamers are just afraid to take that risk. Take a look at some photos from the Smallville: Wall of Weird pilot shoot here, leaked by director James Beeman himself!

Currently, The Smallville 25th Anniversary Special: Always Hold On To Smallville is scheduled to air Friday, June 19. If it does well, perhaps we’ll learn more about some of these other projects. What do you think? Leave some comments below, come talk about this on the KryptonSite Forum, and be sure to read this link before you share this big news.

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Smallville

Justin Hartley Would “Love” To Play Green Arrow Again

When asked if he’d play a superhero, Justin Hartley says he would love to play the Green Arrow again.

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Justin Hartley

Appearing yesterday on The Jennifer Hudson Show to promote his show Tracker, Justin Hartley was asked by Hudson if he’d ever like to play a superhero again… and his response might be surprising and of course welcomed by the Smallville fandom.

“I would love to play a superhero again,” he told her, continuing on to say which superhero he’d like to play.

“You know, there are so many interesting ones that have been portrayed and there are so many that haven’t yet been portrayed… what I think would be really cool, though, now that I’m older [and] I have different life experiences, I would approach it differently and it would be a different story… I’d like to jump back into that Green Arrow suit, honestly.”

He did have one caveat: “Maybe not that exact suit, but something a bit hipper.”

“I think you’d find him in a different place, and you could tell different stories,” Hartley said about Green Arrow and his alter ego. “He’s been through stuff, and I think it would be interesting. I would love that.”

Years before Stephen Amell donned the green tights, Justin Hartley played Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow in five seasons of Smallville. Of course, if he were to ever return, we assume his character would be a widower. Al & Miles, are you listening?

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