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Tom Welling Reflects On Smallville, Looks To Section 13

BuzzFeed caught up with Tom Welling to talk about his past and what might be coming in his future.

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As Tom Welling’s new movie The Choice is coming out very soon, BuzzFeed caught up with the actor for an extensive interview where Welling looks back on his time as Clark Kent on Smallville (2001-2011), his brief hiatus and the movies that followed, all leading to what will hopefully be a new show on CBS called Section 13.

You can read the entire interview here.

"Abyss" -- Tom Welling as Clark Kent in SMALLVILLE, on The CW Network.  Photo: /The CW  ©2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.During that conversation, Welling talked a bit about his time on Smallville.

“There was a lot of growing up I needed to do on that show. Fortunately, Clark had no idea what the hell he was doing and I had no idea what the hell I was doing,” Welling said to BuzzFeed with a laugh. “We kind of grew up together.”

In the piece, Tom talked about the humanity of the character — which one might take as an explanation for why we didn’t really see him in the costume “This needed to be a show about Clark Kent, not about Superman,” Tom said. “That was always the rule: No flights, no tights. When we got into Season 5, they started to say, ‘Well… maybe…’ But I always maintained that’s not the show. Thank god Peter Roth [chief executive of Warner Bros. Television, which produced Smallville] knew that and always championed in our favor. … It was an incredibly unique experience.”

And what does Tom think of all of the current crop of superhero TV? “It’s a compliment,” Welling answered. “I’m very proud of shows like Arrow [and] The Flash.… They’re able to ground these characters so that the viewer can relate on a human level to people who used to be only in two dimensions.”

wellingchoiceAfter Smallville, Tom had two goals: “I wanted to play a human and I wanted to be a part of a film whose theme was bigger than whatever character I was playing,” he said to BuzzFeed. “By being on Smallville for 10 years, I was able to make some really fantastic choices with that character, but now I’m drawn to real people trying to live real lives.” In doing so, he’s done some movies including The Choice, and now he’s creating, executive producing, and hopefully starring in a new project, Section 13, for CBS.

“Emotionally, I can’t even think about what I’m going to do if Section 13 doesn’t go, but I also can’t even think about what I’m going to do if it goes. There’s just so many unknowns,” he said. You can read more about the Section 13 concept here.

At the end of the day, Tom sees his notoriety as the proto-Man of Steel “a big compliment.”

“It means people like what I did. … I guess the joke is when people say, ‘Hey, Superman,’ I have a tendency to reply, ‘Well, I’ve been called worse.’”

You can read the entire BuzzFeed interview here.

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6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Tim Wolfe

    January 26, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    There should of been more then 10 seasons of Smallville look at Supernatural

    • Craig Byrne

      January 26, 2016 at 8:57 pm

      Not really. Smallville, as loved as it was and as much as I loved it too, went on probably 3 seasons too long as it was. Prolonging it even farther would have meant extending the story in an even worse way. We’d keep waiting for him to become Superman and it’d never happen, because Tom doesn’t want to wear the suit.

      I think the time also comes when you can’t expect these people to do the same thing for so long. The BuzzFeed article talks a little bit about the toll that doing Smallville put on Tom’s life, and the long hours… sometimes you’ve got to think they want to do something different. That’s a lot of investment to expect from just one person. It works for Jensen and Jared at Supernatural, but that’s also not a show with a set ending. Smallville’s ending, we always knew would be him becoming Superman. Would we have really wanted to watch 15 years and him still not doing it?

      This article made me respect Tom and his wishes a whole lot more. I hope others follow suit.

      • Sarah

        January 26, 2016 at 10:02 pm

        I am super happy for His return to TV in Section 13! Tom Welling as well as being a beautiful man is above all a wonderful and great man, I hope Tom That Will Be Able to Achieve all its desires

      • Bob Marshall

        February 7, 2016 at 2:25 pm

        Although it probably went on a little to long I’m glad it did. Season 9 was THE best season of the show IMO. Infact that season is probably my favourite season of TV ever.

        • Craig Byrne

          February 15, 2016 at 1:58 pm

          You’re definitely entitled to your opinion, but I thought a lot of Season 9 was a mess. Didn’t care about the New Kryptonians at all after the premiere, and making Clark so far from being the “Last Son of Krypton” really hurt what makes him special, in my opinion.

  2. Cheryl Meadows

    January 27, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    Regardless of whether or not Smallville could have been longer or shorter is not as relevent as the influence this show has had over the past decade and beyond. From the technology to the concepts to the underlying themes, Smallville, which also was influenced by Lois and Clark, has set the bar for innovation, idealogy, philosophy and cannon. It’s good that Tom Welling is moving on to other things, but for years to come, this maybe considered he best body of work. He is certainly gifted and charismatic. It also doesn’t hurt that he was a fellow Michigander. with natural hidden talent. Much success to he and the other cast members future. Smaillville live1

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Smallville

Smallville Ended 15 Years Ago Today

The final episode of Smallville aired May 13, 2011 on The CW.

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Do you know where you were on May 13, 2011?

If you were a regular visitor to KryptonSite back in the day, you know very well where you were – anxiously anticipating that Friday night’s airing of the final two episodes of Smallville on The CW. Would Clark finally put on the suit? How will Lex come back? Will Clark and Lois get married? Will Chloe change her name to become L– oh, never mind that one. 

Regardless of your thoughts on that finale, May 13, 2011 was a moment, and for a lot of us who stuck with the show for ten years, we really thought it was the end. We didn’t know the talented Bryan Q. Miller would be writing his own “Season 11” continuation comic soon after. We certainly had no idea we’d see Tom Welling as Clark and Erica Durance as Lois, in character again in the 2019 “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover on The CW. The KryptonSite Forums were certainly hopping, if you have any curiosity to see what people were posting that night.

And of course, now fans have the opportunity to see their favorite actors at conventions, including Salute to Smallville which has a big 25th anniversary panel planned for Gold Admission pass holders. (Though if you’re not Gold, trust me… there’s greatness for everyone else too!) KryptonSite webmaster and Editor-in-Chief Craig Byrne (that’s me!) has been lucky enough to have been a host of the event these past two years, and now is part of the team at Creation, making sure this event would be awesome. Creation has just listed a sale through Friday 5/15 where you can type in SMALL15 at checkout to get 15% off… one percent for every year we have sadly not had Smallville. So, definitely check it out! Many members of the show’s cast will be in attendance!

We’ve still got a lot coming up on the site to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show’s premiere… but as for today, the 15th anniversary of the show’s ending… have a good time… and keep holding on to Smallville.

And 15 years? WE’RE OLD.

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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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