Smallville

Tom Welling Confirms He Didn’t Want To Go Full-On Superman In The Smallville Finale

Tom Welling reveals the thinking behind the lack of full-on Superman in the Smallville finale.

Published

9 years ago

August 8, 2017

It is a subject that has been debated among Smallville fans for years: A significant number of them insist that Tom Welling would have done the whole “Superman costume” thing in the 2011 Smallville series finale if that was asked of him.

Now, six years later, Tom did a fairly extensive interview with Entertainment Weekly where he talks about the reasons why he did not want to.

“It was something that we discussed before we ever shot the pilot with [creators] Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar],” Welling told EW about the genesis of the whole “no flights, no tights” thing that brought him to the series. “We literally had a sit down where we talked about the show and I asked about the suit and the tights and the flying, and they said, ‘No, absolutely not,’ part of the reason being is that show is about a teenager trying to figure out who he is. They felt that once Clark put on the cape and the suit, life became too easy, in a sense. They wanted to focus on who this character was before that. And, at the time, because of where visual effects and special effects and stunts were, it would be too expensive. That’s mainly why they save that for movies, more or less.”

As for the series finale, which gave fans only a shirt-rip that left many disappointed, Welling wouldn’t say it was his decision, but it sounds a lot like it. “It was literally something that the entire series was behind in not doing that,” he said. “We did things on that show where we didn’t call them powers, we called them abilities — you weren’t allowed to say powers; you just weren’t because Clark didn’t know they were powers, he just knew he had those abilities, so little things like kept us grounded and kept us faced onto the story we were telling about this character, not what he could do with these abilities.”

Welling also dropped the bombshell that there was an idea for Clark to suit up earlier in the series finale, where we’d see full-on Superman, and he was instrumental in making suer it didn’t happen. “Our series finale was supposed to be, in the first act, Clark puts on the suit and flies around, saves Lois on a plane, and does this other stuff,” Welling revealed. “It was a call that I had with Peter Roth, who is the head of Warner Bros. Television, who’s a good friend of mine and we have a great relationship. I said, ‘That’s not our show, Peter.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s going to be great,’ and I go, ‘Yeah, but just think about what we’ve been doing. If we just jump into that, we haven’t earned it.’”

In the end, the actor was happy with the decision they made to end with a shirt rip. “We jumped onto this idea that at the end of the show, the idea is that Clark becomes Superman and he’s out there, and we know he’s out there, but we can’t go with him, but that we know and we feel good that he’s out there doing good,” he said. “That was what we strove for, and I think we hit it. I liked the ending of the series, because it’s like, ‘Yes, he did it!’ I hope the audience didn’t feel like we didn’t show them something that they needed to see. I felt like we gave them the jumping off point for their imagination as to what could happen.”

You can read the complete Entertainment Weekly interview here. Our thanks again to Zach from Always Hold On To Smallville for the heads-up, and if you’d like to talk about this with other fans, the KryptonSite forums still exist!

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Photo: Tom Welling At The FOX Summer 2017 All-Star Party

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2 Comments

Rob Lopez

August 8, 2017 at 7:08 pm

You did earn it, Tom. Do a Superman limited series under the Smallville banner and you will see how many of us are behind you.

Reply
Christina

August 8, 2017 at 8:50 pm

We wanted the suit, Tom! I hope his decision didn’t change it so much to let Tess Mercer die. That’s why I didn’t re-watch the finale. I think it would be far greater with the way it was originally written. Come on Tom! Climax!

Reply

Smallville

Cassidy Freeman To Make Her First Salute to Smallville Appearance!

Cassidy Freeman will be appearing at the 25th Anniversary Salute to Smallville convention in Nashville.

Published

2 days ago

September 21, 2026

Craig Byrne

Smallville Seasons 8-10 standout Cassidy Freeman is coming to the 25th anniversary convention in Nashville happening November 7-8, 2026!

Creation Entertainment announced her this afternoon, and tickets for the event are still available as well as photo ops/autographs with Cassidy. Get them while the getting’s good, because this is her first appearance at a Smallville-only convention and there’s sure to be a lot of demand!

Cassidy played “Tess Mercer” in those final seasons, and we followed her from her debut all the way to her reveal as a Luthor, and, of course, her eventual fate in the show’s finale. (No spoilers here!) She’s kept quite busy in the years since, starring in Longmire, The Righteous Gemstones, and more, always bringing her excellent talent to the screen.

Joining Cassidy at the 25th anniversary celebration are Smallville creators Al Gough & Miles Millar as well as over a dozen members of the cast as well as guest stars – Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Erica Durance, Kristin Kreuk, John Glover, Laura Vandervoort, Helen Slater, Adrianna Palicki, Phil Morris, Erica Cerra, Eric Johnson and Sam Jones III! Hosting the event will be KryptonSite’s own Craig Byrne as well as Derek Russell from The House of El.

Smallville

Smallville Creators To Attend 25th Anniversary Convention

Smallville creators Alfred Gough & Miles Millar will be attending Creation’s 25th anniversary convention.

Published

2 months ago

July 16, 2026

Craig Byrne

Every story has a beginning… and these two were there at the very beginning.

As if there weren’t enough reasons already to attend Creation Entertainment’s 25th Anniversary Salute to Smallville convention which is happening November 7-8, 2026 in Nashville… two new additions have been added to the already-packed lineup… two folks who were there at the very start.

Smallville creators Alfred Gough & Miles Millar will be attending the 25th anniversary show, which will run a few weeks after the 25th anniversary of the October 16, 2001 premiere of Smallville on The WB. They’ll be joining a lineup already populated by some huge names including Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance and more, and this year, there are even some new guests that are attending their first Creation Smallville show, including the legendary Helen Slater (Lara-El) and Phil Morris (John Jones!)

Beyond Smallville, Al & Miles have kept themselves very busy on several projects, most recently Netflix’s Wednesday and the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film. Other credits of theirs include The Shannara Chronicles, Into the Badlands, and Spider-Man 2, the last of which is known by many as “the best live-action Spider-Man movie.” As far as we know, this is their first convention discussing Smallville since their time on the show way back when it was Season 7 being promoted at San Diego Comic-Con. If you’ve had questions about the show that you’ve been sitting on for over two decades, the two best people to answer them – Al Gough & Miles Millar – will now be there!

The anniversary convention will be co-emceed by KryptonSite’s Craig Byrne (that’s me!) and The House of El’s Derek Russell for the third year in a row, and we’d love to see you.

Get your admission passes, photo ops, autographs and more by visiting Creation’s website!

If you are still on the fence about going, Creation is offering 10% off all admission passes, photo op, autograph, and special event tickets for a limited time! Use the coupon code SMV10 and click “Apply” to get the discount (service fees and sales tax will still apply). The sale ends Saturday, July 18 at 5:00 PM PST.

A full guest list of the actors can be found below.

Comics

Black Star: Pre-Order The Comic From Kristin Kreuk Today!

Kristin Kreuk’s comic book Black Star is available to pre-order from your local comic shop.

Published

3 months ago

July 2, 2026

Craig Byrne

July 29, 2026 will mark the release of the first issue of the new Titan Comics series Black Star which is written by Smallville alum and current Murder In A Small Town star Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang) alongside collaborators Peter Mooney and Eric Putzer with art by Joe Bacardo. The five-issue series is described as “a Northern Gothic Noir tinged with horror and dark humor.”

In Black Star, amidst skirmishings between two warring factions in the early nineteenth-century fur trade, Dashiell Carlyle discovers he has magical abilities… and that he’s not alone. Thrust into a secret order with designs to use their magic to build a new and better world, Dashiell discovers that their utopia may come at a horrific cost.

Here at KryptonSite, we of course are very supportive of Kristin’s new endeavor and hope others will by pre-ordering the first issue of the series. While there may be copies on the shelf on the day of release, pre-ordering means that you shouldn’t miss out… and the key pre-order period is what really helps for sales, as retailers have until Monday, July 6 to get their orders in. To find your nearest comic shop, visit the Comic Shop Locator website, and to ask then to pre-order a physical copy for you, call your local comic shop or, if in the UK or Europe, you can contact Forbidden Planet. Black Star will also have a presence (and an exclusive cover) at the Comic-Con International in San Diego later this month… just head to Booth #5337 (the Titan Publishing booth) to get yours! [Maybe while there, tell Titan you want more Smallville companion guide books from Craig Byrne! – shameless Craig]

The other thing you can do to ensure you get all five issues of Black Star is to set up a “pull-list” subscription with your local comic store, which tells the retailer to put aside a copy for you each time a new issue is released, on a rolling basis. Some retailers will also offer you the option of pulling just the first issue of any new related series, so you can try it before you commit. Either way, you won’t have to worry about it selling out before you get your chance!

Finally, you can pre-order a digital copy online… and maybe get a few cents to KryptonSite from an affiliate link as well. You can do that here.

Now for the really fun stuff… want to see some interior pages as well as several variant covers they are releasing. Artists for the covers include Martin Simmonds (The Department of Truth), Joe Bacardo (Black Star), Robert Hack (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Alison Sampson (Sleeping Beauties)! Enjoy: