Exciting news today forSmallvillefans.Tom Welling, who starred as Clark Kent on the WB/CW series for ten years from 2001 to 2011, will reprise his role as Superman’s alter ego on the upcoming Arrowverse crossover based onCrisis on Infinite Earths.Arrowco-creator and executive producerMarc Guggenheimtold Deadline, “For eight years,Arrowhas stood on the shoulders ofSmallville.Simply put, there would be noArrow, and no Arrowverse, without it,” he said. “So when we first started talking about Crisis on Infinite Earths, our first, second and third priorities were getting Tom to reprise his iconic role as Clark Kent. To say that we’re thrilled would be a Superman-sized understatement.”
Guggenheim is right. Regardless about how you feel aboutSmallvilleorArrow, one leads to the other. No one had really attempted the long-form origin superhero story before, andSmallvillekind of got in there early before studios realized what they had with their superhero properties.Smallvillewas more genre-friendly thanThe Adventures of Lois and Clark, but wasn’t aimed a pre-teen viewers likeBatman: The Animated Series. While the first few seasons were pretty content with monster-of-the-week fare where a “meteor freak” would be fighting a Clark Kent who’s slowly discovering his powers, there was also some really strong stuff between Clark and young Lex Luthor that I wish had run for the entirety of the series.
Welling will now join other SupermenTyler HoechlinandBrandon Routh, who were both slightly easier gets since Hoechlin has played Superman onSupergirlwhile Routh is already part of the Arrowverse playing Ray Palmer/The Atom onLegends of Tomorrow(although Routh willsoon be leavingLegends of Tomorrow, which he said was “not my decision.”) There’s no word yet if Welling will be suiting up as Superman for the crossover or remaining as Clark Kent, but his participation will likely bring in theSmallvillecontingent who have missed seeing him play the character.
TheCrisis on Infinite Earthscrossover over will span five episodes across five franchises—Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, andBatwoman—and air three episodes in December with the remaining two in January.
