With superheroes donning their cloaks all over, is a Smallville reboot in development?
Superman has always been one of the most popular DC characters ever created. Banking on the success of the Superman movie franchise, writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar developed the 2001 series Smallville for The WB. The superhero-action-adventure drama proved to be an instant success and received all kinds of favourable reviews and accolades.
Highlights:
- “It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!”
- Why reboot the series now?
- The CW’s 2019 crossover – “Crisis on Infinite Earths”
The series moved on to The CW from its sixth season due to The WB becoming defunct, and went on to become the longest science fiction series ever aired on American television with 217 episodes.
A Little More About The Smallville Cast
The series was commended for its writing and character development and its popularity even led to spawning a comic book range that continued the story from its finale. It has already been a decade. So, is the show finally being brought back?
“It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!”
Gough and Millar brought back Superman and with a bang. Featuring Tom Welling as Clark Kent, the series chronicled his adventures in a fictional town called Smallville in Kansas.
The first four seasons revolved around Kent and his friends as they studied in high school, whereas season 5 onwards had the characters enter adulthood, and mainly focused on Kent’s job at the Daily Planet with Lois Lane (Erica Durance). It also introduced more DC villains and superheroes. The series began with the premise of Kent coming to terms with his alien genetics and showed his journey to becoming the legendary superhero, Superman.
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The series opened with a record rating of 8.4 million viewers and maintained ratings of over 4.5 million viewers on an average. The series was even praised by the original Man of Steel, Christopher Reeve himself. He lauded the 2001 series saying,
“I was a little sceptical when I heard about [Smallville] at first, but I must say the writing, the acting, and the special effects are quite remarkable. In 1977, a big stunt scene would have taken us a week to film—it’s pretty impressive what they are able to do with computers and effects technology today on a weekly TV show. It gives it a lot more production value and inventiveness than I thought I was going to see when I first heard about the series. I think the show is doing a really good job following the mythology, and Tom is doing a good job following the tradition.”
Why reboot the series now?
The series first premiered in 2001 and that was a decade ago. With multiple characters from the DC universe currently having their own successful shows on The CW, a Smallville reboot seems the perfect addition. The CW is currently home to DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (2016), Supergirl (2016), Black Lightning (2018), Batwoman (2019) and DC’s Stargirl (2020), all of which are doing superbly well.
A Smallville reboot has been in the pipeline for a while with fans wanting to see it revived with the original cast returning. The idea is either to have a reboot based on the 2011 comic series that follows the show’s finale, or make a new series centring around a supporting character like Lex Luthor. However, with the much-awaited reboot still in discussions, The CW successfully developed its a DC universe crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths last year.
The CW’s 2019 crossover – Crisis on Infinite Earths
On December 8, 2019 premiered the five-part Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths, which had Tom Welling reprising his role as Superman. The mini-series was quite an event for DC fans as it featured several popular superheroes and villains. The series received acclaim and was met with stellar ratings. Despite not being completely satisfied with Oliver Queen’s fate, fans expressed their appreciation for the crossover’s storyline and star cameos.
For fans of Superman, The CW is also currently developing a Supergirl spin-off called Superman & Lois starring Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch in the titular roles, followed by a Batwoman and Superman & Lois crossover set to release in 2021.
So, while fans wait for Smallville to return, they are in for quite a treat as more and more characters will be seen on their television screens in the coming years.
Are you looking forward to a Smallville reboot? Did you watch the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover? What do you think about Tyler Hoechlin taking over the role of Superman in Superman & Lois? Write to us in the comments section below.
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