‘Smallville’ Is A Definitive Iteration Of Superman For Stars Of James Gunn’s Reboot
For some of us, it’s surreal to think of Smallville as a 25-year-old show that’s been off the air for 15 years. Many of us have been around the fandom block for decades, and were growing up with Superman long before that. We had Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, and Tim Daly on the animated series long before Smallville premiered or The WB was a thing.
However, enough time has gone by that people who had the series as their introduction, and formative experience with the Man of Steel and his lore, are grown up. In short, Tom Welling, who played a teen Clark Kent entering adulthood and beyond, is Superman to an entire generation, even though he never got to put on the costume.
And some individuals who look at Welling as the quintessential Superman are actors themselves. At least one went on to play the character; we’re talking about the current man to wear the cape, David Corenswet. “When I was growing up, he was the Superman who was on TV every week,” said the actor, who was eight when Smallville took off, in an EW cover story.
“I think, to one extent or another, all of the Superman actors,” he continued, addressing similarities between himself and Welling, “There’s some Venn diagram of our physical characteristics, which makes sense for a superhero who is classically the one who doesn’t wear a mask.”
The notion that Smallville is a definitive Superman adaptation extends to other character iterations in its canon, like Lex Luthor. The show’s Lex, Michael Rosenbaum, had the new cinematic Luthor, Nicholas Hoult, on his podcast when the latter revealed he grew up on Rosenbaum’s tormented portrayal.
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“I think my first ever Lex I saw was you. Smallville was on,” Hoult explained, “I was 11, 12, I guess. That was the show I would watch and see my first iterations of Superman and Lex in all those stories. Since, I’ve seen Richard Donner’s movies and all the other ones and performances. But you are like the one!”
He continued, “I love it, are you kidding? It’s the best! You did inhabit him with such depth and charm. That ability to switch, which makes him dangerous and formidable and a great opponent. I just love what you did.” Now that Hoult has met and chatted at length with Rosenbaum, he’s received flattering encouragement.
“Honestly, he was so kind and encouraging, and he really gave me a freedom and a confidence and a support that felt really lovely going into it,” Hoult recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “The beautiful thing he said was, ‘You’ve got this. Go have fun’.”
Hoult added, “It’s a, weirdly, kind of uplifting and wonderful thing to play a character that you’ve watched someone play and do a brilliant job at, to then have them say, ‘Yeah, go get it. Go take it on.’ That’s a really bolstering sort of thing to happen.”
No doubt, the emphasis DCU actors are putting on Smallville will bring renewed attention to the series, and maybe Rosenbaum and Welling’s passionate endeavor for a follow-up, which DC Studios remains cold and quiet about exploring.
NEXT: ‘Smallville’ Star Tom Welling Arrested For DUI In An Arby’s Parking Lot
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