#Smallville20: Was Smallville Close To Giving Us Bruce Wayne?

Interviews Smallville Smallville News 42 Craig Byrne October 11, 2021

Craig Byrne

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While “a billionaire with high-tech toys” was once referenced and a Smallville season finale once led to a special preview of Batman Begins on The WB, the character of Bruce Wayne never did make an appearance on the Smallville television series. Batman did, however, show up in the Smallville Season Eleven comic book series from writer Bryan Q. Miller.

Going through our KryptonSite archives, however, we found something interesting in a post dated January 30, 2002. Here’s what it said:

Elsewhere in magazine-land, Wizard magazine also did a feature on Smallville in its latest issue, which also featured a photo of Tom and Kristin on the corner of the cover! The most interesting part of the article was Wizard’s posing of the frequently asked question “Will Batman guest star?” Well, will he?

The article revealed that an appearance won’t be possible this season, but there are moves being made to work out an agreement with DC Comics to use a young Bruce Wayne in a 2-to-3-episode story arc, maybe even as soon as next season.

“Within the Superman universe, we’re clear to use those characters, and DC’s been very supportive but with other characters it’s a creative and business decision… Batman has a whole ‘nother licensing thing and ownership even though it’s in the DC world,” Smallville executive producer Alfred Gough revealed. Gough also speculated on how Bruce would interact with some of Smallville’s folks.

“I don’t think he and Clark would really get along,” Gough said. “I think maybe the last line of the meeting would be Clark turning to Bruce and saying, ‘You should really seek some professional help’.”

With the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Smallville coming this week, we decided to seek out some answers. How close were we to actually getting Bruce Wayne on Smallville? We asked the two people who’d know better than anyone: The show’s creators, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. While we have more to share from them in the coming days, this burning question seemed worthy to kick off KryptonSite’s #Smallville20 festivities.

So what’s the deal?

“To be honest, that was more of a pipe dream, only because at that point, the feature side and [Christopher] Nolan were developing Batman Begins, [but] we always thought if we put it out in the press, maybe we could get them to turn the corner,” Gough admitted.

Not having Bruce Wayne was not because of a lack of interest. “It was always our dream to have Batman… young Bruce Wayne,” Miles Millar confirmed. “It was always our dream to have young Diana Prince, and both were shattered at the feet of Warner Bros. features. It all changed when the head of production at the feature studio left. And the idea that you couldn’t make a movie and make a TV series of the same character at the same time… that also is a really old-world notion that that has now faded completely, obviously, in this day and age with the Marvel Universe and everything else.”

“I think, for us, and we were definitely pioneers in that sphere in a way, and I think it created a environment where these things could prosper after us, but as early pioneers, we were really thwarted in many of our efforts to do what we wanted to do,” he continued.

This is just one part of our long discussion with the creators of Smallville. Look for more Smallville 20th anniversary interviews throughout the week here on KryptonSite – be sure to follow @KryptonSite on Twitter to stay updated! Our thanks to those who have stayed with KryptonSite for 20 years, and to Alfred Gough and Miles Millar for getting this started.

Smallville: The Complete Series arrives on Blu-ray October 19!

About the author

Craig Byrne

Craig Byrne has been writing about Superman TV since 1995, when the "Lois & Clark Krypton Club" launched. He founded KryptonSite.com in February 2001, becoming the first fan site for The WB/CW television series Smallville. He also wrote the Official Companion books for Smallville seasons 4-7 as well as the Smallville Visual Guide.