How Smallville Birthed the Arrowverse Without Even Knowing It (ft. Tom Welling)

Опубликовано 4 ноября 2021, 13:05

Twenty years ago, the teenage Superman drama Smallville made its debut on the now-defunct WB network, launching a remarkable run that, despite its firm "no tights, no flights" edict, managed to fly further than any on-screen incarnation of the Man of Steel before or since. A 10-season run, in fact.

After all, those 217 episodes did much more than define the Superman mythos for an entire generation who grew up alongside Tom Welling's Clark Kent, Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor, and Kristen Kreuk's Lana Lang. Indeed, Smallville's reimagining of the classic super-hero paradigm as a conflicted teen drama was a stroke of genius that not only gave renewed currency to the Superman legend but also set the stage for an entire multiverse of live-action DC Comics shows that continue to spread across both network and streaming television to this day, from the Arrowverse to the HBO Max DC shows and beyond.

It all started with a proposed young Bruce Wayne series, but when executives on the Warner Bros. feature film side decided that they didn't want any competition for the Batman reboot they were developing, young Bruce transformed into young Clark Kent. Soon the writing/producing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were drafted by Warner Bros. Television's Peter Roth to work on the proposed series, which would eventually evolve into Smallville. And hence a legend was born.

Yes, without Smallville, there would likely be no Arrow, no Flash, no Superman & Lois, Titans, or Doom Patrol. So let's look back at the birth of Smallville two decades ago, how it managed to endure for 10 years, and the super legacy that the show left behind.

Smallville: The Complete Series is now available on Blu-ray for the first time ever, timed to the show's 20th anniversary.

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