Sorry Fans, Smallville Refuses to Follow the Reboot Trend
While tons of older shows are getting rebooted or revived, Al Gough and Miles Millar are not interested in revisiting the story of Superman.
Smallville showrunners revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that they would not revisit the superhero series any time soon despite the recent trend to revive beloved TV shows cashing in on the audience's nostalgia.
Al Gough said that a Smallville reboot would be unnecessary because the showrunners had already told the story they wanted to tell. Gough added he felt that there were lots of versions of the Superman story already. When he heard James Gunn was creating a new movie featuring Superman in his younger years, the showrunner felt extremely lucky.
"I'm like, 'OK.' I feel like we were very, very fortunate to do the show when we did it because we got to make the show we wanted to make," Gough said.
Unlike creators of any new TV show, Smallville showrunners were given a certain level of freedom, Gough explained. There was nobody overseeing their every step and banning their creative decisions. That's why the series turned out to be that far from the canon. But that was also Smallville's superpower.
"One generation's heresy is the next generation's gospel," Gough explained.
Indeed, the superhero series that premiered in 2001, has become a fan favorite and spawned a series of young adult novels, and a DC Comics bimonthly comic book, despite being quite different from the canon. The main difference was a "no tights, no flights" rule which meant Tom Welling 's Clark Kent never appeared in the show in his Superman costume and never flew. This rule allowed the creators to show the Man of Steel in development focusing on his early years.
Though the original showrunners are not interested in returning to the story of Clark Kent, the show can still get a continuation in an animated series developed by Smallville lead star Tom Welling and his co-actor Michael Rosenbaum who played Lex Luthor.
The series will reportedly serve as the eleventh season of Smallville and feature Clark Kent as the superhero he was always supposed to become. Smallville was never meant to show the fully developed Man of Steel, Welling told CBR, but the animated series could "service that idea" and focus on adult Superman. The actor added that he hoped all the cast would return to voice their respective characters.