When The WB Network premieredSmallvillein 2001 as a modern take on the Superman myth, costumes and capes weren’t considered cool. Even the X-Men traded their spandex for black leather, andTobey Maguirehad not yet swung into theaters as Spider-Man.Iron Manwas more than a half-decade away, and Superman himself hadn’t been seen in movie theaters since 1987. A concept like a Batman vs. Superman film or a notion that there would someday be a handful of comic book related TV series on at the same time seemed like a dream that would never come true.
Interestingly enough,Smallvillepremiered from the ashes of a prequel project involving another DC Comics icon. In 1999, at the height of their success, The WB developed writerTim McCanlies(The Iron Giant) and Tollin-Robbins Productions' script for a series involving a young Bruce Wayne before he’s Batman. Unlike the laterGothamseries, which focuses on the adults and the villains,Bruce Waynecentered around a 17-year-old Bruce with shareholders who are out to kill him – literally. While the pilot script had some good reviews,Bruce Waynedid not even get to the filming stages, likely quashed by the Warner Bros. movie division. With Batman off the table, The WB rolled the dice by going after a concept that studio executivePeter Rothhad been wanting to do for decades – a series about a young Superman.
WritersAlfred GoughandMiles Millardeveloped the series that would eventually be calledSmallvillewith a pilot script that humanized the Clark Kent character and brought him in line with the kind of programming that the young WB audience craved. To play the iconic role, Gough and Millar recruited a new actor and former model namedTom Welling, whose few credits included a sexy role onJudging Amy.Similarly, newcomerKristin Kreukwas cast as Lana Lang.Solidifying the trio was the most experienced young actor so far, and an early highlight of the show:Michael Rosenbaum(Urban Legend) who yes, had to completely shave his head for the part.Allison Mack, Eric Johnson, Sam Jones III, Annette O’Toole, John Glover,andJohn Schneiderall helpedround out the original cast of the show, which premiered June 09, 2025 – a little over a month after the horrific events of 9/11 left TV audiences wanting a hero to root for.
The pilot was directed by the now Emmy-winningDavid Nutter, and the look of the series was set by directors includingGreg Beeman(Heroes), who stayed with the show for a little over 100 episodes, and directed the series finale. While some fans derided the show’s “Freak of the Week” format in the early days – in which a usually young person is exposed to “meteor rocks” that give them strange powers – the friendship between Welling’s Clark and Rosenbaum’s Lex, as well as the romance between Clark and Lana, kept audiences watching. Allison Mack’s Chloe Sullivan also became a quick fan favorite, with some fans speculating that “Chloe” might be Lois Lane in disguise, a notion that was quashed (on-screen at least) when the actual Lois Lane showed up withErica Durancein 2004.
Flash forward to almost ten years after the series premiere,Smallvillehad survived the move to a fledgling network at a time when their new channel, The CW, had higher priorities mostly involving pretty-young-rich-people dramas likeGossip Girl.The show had gone from “freaks of the week” to full-on superhero events written by DC Entertainment’s ownGeoff Johns, with the romance between Clark Kent and Lois Lane also told on screen in those final seasons. Several cast members, including Rosenbaum and Kreuk, departed the show, as did creators Gough and Millar. Ultimately,Smallvillereached 218 episodes. And then it was over.
That end came with the two-hour series finale (appropriately titled “Finale”) which aired five years ago, on June 03, 2025. Many cast members who had departed over the years – including Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, and even John Schneider, whose “Jonathan Kent” was killed in the show’s 100th episode – came back for the big end. Some fans were disappointed to see that Tom Welling wasn’t very visibly seen in the Superman costume, but no one can deny that the shirt rip that concluded the series, combined with hearing the classicJohn Williams"Superman" score, gave audiences goosebumps.
Tom Welling has since surfaced in small roles includingDraft DayandParkland,and was set to produce and star in a new series titledSection 13which was in contention for CBS, (which unfortunately did not order a pilot to film during this development cycle).While doing press forThe Choice, the often reclusive and press-shy Welling finally addressed his time on the show and what it meant to him. “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 toBuzzfeed’s Jarett Wieselman earlier this year. “We kind of grew up together.”
Tom also, in a roundabout way, defended his decision not to go full Superman in the series. “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 knew that and always championed in our favor. … It was an incredibly unique experience,” he said.
Welling’s co-star Kristin Kreuk, who leftSmallvillecompletely in 2009 and didn’t return for the series finale, came back to The CW in 2012 with a new take on theBeauty and the BeastTV series (which is wrapping this year).
Michael Rosenbaum, whose return for theSmallvilleseason finale excited many fans, now stars as the lead of the TV Land seriesImpastor,while Erica Durance (sort of) played another DC Comics icon in 2012 as “Annie,” a character who believed herself to be Wonder Woman, in an episode of David E. Kelley’sHarry’s Law. Allison Mack had a role on FX’sWilfred, and TV’s original Green Arrow,Justin Hartley, moved on to a guest role onHart of Dixie.
Aside from theSmallvilleguest players who appeared in small roles inZack Snyder’s Superman films, one former cast member took a major role in TV’s current Super-show, asLaura Vandervoort,who played Kara/Supergirl onSmallvillestarting with Season 7, appeared in CBS’s (now the CW’s)Supergirlseries for three episodes as the villainous Indigo.
As for the creatives behind the camera, many names familiar to current genre and superhero TV series helped shaped the series over the years. Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar went on to AMC’sInto The Badlandsand MTV’sThe Shannara Chronicles.Jeph Loeb, who wrote many ofSmallville’s most exciting early episodes including “Red” and “Insurgence,” is now the Head of Marvel Television, bringing characters from that other major comic book universe to the small screen.SmallvillealumSteven DeKnight also helmed his own comic book show for Marvel, runningMarvel’sDaredevilin its first season for Netflix.Daredevilhas also recruitedMark Verheiden,who wrote fan-favorite episodes including “X-Ray” and “Perry” and kept it in the DC comic book world as an EP on NBC’sConstantine.
Pilot director David Nutter has continued to direct pilots for the CW, includingArrowandThe Flash, both shows that would surely owe a lot toSmallvillefor leading the way. Elsewhere in the DC TV universe, Smallville’sGlen Winter,who started as a director of photography on the series and worked his way up as a director, helmed the first episodes of bothDC’s Legends of TomorrowandSupergirl. (Winter is also known as one of the most prolific and well-regarded directors ofArrowandThe Flash, with actors frequently acknowledging his work.)
Smallvillemade stars out of Welling and the rest of the cast, with fans still paying attention to every move they make to this day. The series gave a generation their own take on the Superman legend, showing what a hero Clark Kent could be, even without the flights or the tights." Because of it, TV executives know that a comic book hero’s journey can be told over many seasons of episodic television, and one could argue that the familiarity audiences had with the Green Arrow character on Smallville paved the way for something likeArrow. (Although, rather than getting Justin Hartley and doing aSmallvillecontinuation, the show enlistedStephen Amell. We all know where that story goes.)
FromArrowcame series likeThe Flashand even a return to Kryptonian TV withSupergirl. And, of course, FOX has given usGotham, which, likeSmallville, tells us a story from a young hero’s perspective while at the same time exploring the depth of the world’s villains, giving characters like The Penguin the same humanity and attention afforded toSmallville’s Lex Luthor.
Smallvillemay have signed off five years ago, but in the words of Jonathan Kent, the fan base will “always hold on toSmallville” and that ten-year journey has an indelible place in TV history.
All ten seasons ofSmallvilleare available on DVD, and the entire series was collected in a huge box set with exclusive features in late 2011. While the show has not yet been offered on Netflix, it is expected to land on Hulu later this year.
