SMALLVILLE Star Kristin Kreuk On Not Returning As Lana Lang In Final Season And Being "Replaced" By Lois Lane

SMALLVILLE Star Kristin Kreuk On Not Returning As Lana Lang In Final Season And Being "Replaced" By Lois Lane

Kristin Kreuk played Lana Lang in eight seasons of Smallville and explains why she declined an offer to return during the show's final year and weighs in on being "replaced" by Erica Durance's Lois Lane.

By JoshWilding - Jun 10, 2024 09:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Smallville
Source: Kryptonsite

Clark Kent and Lana Lang had an on-and-off relationship over eight seasons of Smallville, with the young Superman's first love even marrying Lex Luthor in season 6 of the beloved TV series. 

After leaving Smallville in the season 7 finale so Clark could fulfil his destiny as a superhero, Lana returned in season 8. However, she was forced to absorb Kryptonite, meaning she and the future Man of Steel had to keep their distance forever. It was a bizarre moment, albeit one which permanently ended their relationship. 

After that, Clark moved on to Lois Lane, the woman we all know he's destined to end up with. 

Talking at the Superman Celebration event in Metropolis, Illinois this past weekend, actress Kristin Kreuk admitted she takes issue with the suggestion Lois "replaced" Lana in Smallville.

"I didn’t think of it that way," the actress explained. "I never did. I thought they were two different storylines, and I really struggle with the idea that one woman replaces another woman, and I struggle with the idea that these womens’ lives don’t continue on, and they aren’t full and beautiful lives."

"So, I don’t know that she was replaced by someone else; I think that her connection to Clark changes, and she builds her own future. That’s how I saw it, anyway."

Elsewhere in the panel, Kreuk confirmed she turned down the chance to return as Lana in the show's final season. "I just wanted her to be off in imaginary land," she admitted. "I wanted her to keep living the life that she had gone off to live, and I didn’t want to bring her back into the world."

"I really struggled with all of the love triangle stuff and I just didn’t see how we’d come back and add another closure to the story that wasn’t about Clark and Lois."

"I like that she got to have her independence and got to find the path forward for herself that was tied to what she believed in, her moral compass, her values. I like that she got to separate herself from these men. If the show had been a different show, would there have been a different ending? Maybe, yes. But I like that. Because her stories were so tied to these men, it was such a nice thing for her to honor herself."

As for whether she'd be open to a Smallville reunion, Kreuk added, "We’ve talked about this a lot. I think we’re all open to it. I know that we’re not babies anymore. The boys have been working on this animated thing for a million years now. I don’t know what’s happening with that, but that has been the main idea, I think, moving forward."

You can check out the full panel in the player below.

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Evansly
Evansly - 6/10/2024, 9:09 AM
Thoughtful response
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 6/10/2024, 9:18 AM
As beautiful as the day we lost her. :')
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/10/2024, 9:22 AM
I met her at nycc 2 years ago
Evansly
Evansly - 6/10/2024, 9:25 AM
@0bstreperous - Nice! How is NYCC? She strikes me as someone who would be very pleasant, did you get that impression after meeting her?
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/10/2024, 9:46 AM
@Evansly - nycc is cool she was nice
Evansly
Evansly - 6/10/2024, 9:54 AM
@0bstreperous - Awesome! I always feel like NYCC and SDCC are probably the best ones to go to for new content announcements but the crowds look NUTS
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/10/2024, 10:05 AM
@Evansly - crowds are nuts you just have to plan one thing you want to achieve each year
HermanM
HermanM - 6/10/2024, 11:30 AM
@Evansly - NYCC is basically pop culture and video con. I was there for two hours before I ever found a single comic book. Still a lot of fun though
Evansly
Evansly - 6/10/2024, 11:33 AM
@HermanM - That makes sense! I am waiting until my kids are a bit older before I take them to the Denver Con but have a lot of friends in so cal to maybe check out SDCC. Or I can plan a NY trip! I love the east coast in the fall
HermanM
HermanM - 6/10/2024, 11:43 AM
@Evansly - NYCC and San Diego CC are like pop culture movie/game con now with little comic stuff in comparison but still a lot of fun
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/10/2024, 9:26 AM
Like, I think Kreuk is a nice person and all (tho she was involved with Allison what's-her-name with that sex cult for a bit), but she just came across as a whiney b1tch during the show. I couldn't stand her character at all.
Durance on the other hand was a shining light as Lois on a Superman show that wasn't very good and lasted WAY too long (what, was welling like pushing 40ish near the series finale?)
I actually enjoyed the last two seasons the best even though I know most liked the earlier seasons. It explored way more of Krypton's heritage.

There are random episodes from the beginning like Reeve's guest spot in season two and them playing the original movie's score.

The only other episode I kinda liked was the flash episode in season 4. However, the most cringe line ever was when Bart told Clark in the hotel room that he can move faster than Clark can blink and Welling literally said, "yeah, well....I can blink pretty fast. " Good lord that's CW writing at its finest.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 9:32 AM
@lazlodaytona - I might be wrong, but that sex cult fiasco preceded cancel culture by a hair, so I think she's fine to come back. They never proved that she was in the inner circle like Chloe(now if that had happened today, it wouldn't have mattered if she denied the allegations, she would be mired by that brush forever)
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 9:42 AM
@ObserverIO - "now if that had happened today, it wouldn't have mattered if she denied the allegations, she would be mired by that brush forever"

Is that really true, though? What are some examples of celebrities who didn't do the things they were accused of, but stayed "mired by that brush" of cancellation never the less?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/10/2024, 9:45 AM
@ObserverIO - i agree. I'm not saying Kristin got too involved. Just she was briefly involved but wisely dropped out.
Sad thing is, I saw Allison Mack in Metropolis years ago and she was the kindest, biggest sweetheart ... I was just shocked with the whole thing.
I don't judge her because anyone can get hooked on cults, cocaine, pornography, alcohol (which happened to me after my divorce) over-religious churches, and so on.

I hope she's seeking help because the best first step is to accept you've got a problem.

Prays for her.
Steel86
Steel86 - 6/10/2024, 9:54 AM
@lazlodaytona - Really no need to bring the cult stuff up with someone that didn't really have any dealing with them. She was a friend of someone that was heavy into it and she was told it was a friend group. When she found out that is was more than that she bounced.
And Tom was 32-33 when Smallville ended a pretty good ways away from 40.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/10/2024, 9:57 AM
@clintthahamster - dude, Kevin Spacey was cleared of all charges but do you really think he was 100% innocent? Especially hanging out with Bryan Singer and being in his films?

and, look it up. watch Bill Burr's comedy bit on Sean Connery talking about "giving a little slap to women sometimes." Hollywood is full of F'd up people.....directors to producers to actors, to whatever else.
It's sick.

Will Smith assaults a guy in front of millions of viewers and then he wins an award because he did a film about black people .... the EXACT race of the guy he assaulted. I'm glad Chris Rock tore him a new one on his last special.

and that pedophile living in Poland (I believe) who assaulted a 13-year-old girl (and probably many more) years ago but isn't being punished because the country won't extradite him. Yet Hollywood stands when he gets an Academy Award to applause him.

Yeah, I'm not trying to be mean to you or argumentative but you just CAN NOT support the a-holes who work in Hollywood.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/10/2024, 9:58 AM
@Steel86 -
You must have been a big fan of the show. Where u a teen when it aired?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/10/2024, 10:01 AM
@Steel86 - "And Tom was 32-33 when Smallville ended a pretty good ways away from 40."

You got me there. I mean, no one thinks it's weird a dude was almost into his mid-twenties playing a high school freshman?
Steel86
Steel86 - 6/10/2024, 10:17 AM
@lazlodaytona - Big fan. And yes I was 13 when it first premiered.
Steel86
Steel86 - 6/10/2024, 10:20 AM
@lazlodaytona - Yes and no. TV and movies actor play younger and older all the time. And its not like he was forever in high school. Show lasted 10 years and high school was only 4 of them.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 10:29 AM
@lazlodaytona - Same side, I think. I'm saying that there's not a lot of examples of people that DIDN'T do the things they were accused of having their careers significantly impacted. I'd be fine if Spacey, Polanski, etc never worked again, and I'd prefer to see them die in jail.

But I think Kreuk would have been fine, even if the NXIVM business hadn't "preceded cancel culture by a hair," because she was open about her involvement, and there was no evidence that she was in the "inner circle" of that bullshit, and immediately praised the women coming forward and condemned the actions of those that were involved.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 10:42 AM
@clintthahamster - Spacey might be a prime example. Singer maybe. Whedon denied/clarified most of the things he was accused of saying. Majors was cancelled BEFORE being found guilty. A lot of Ezra's action were accusations (not all of them, of course). It seems most people are merely accused and then promptly cancelled.

I think a better challenge would be to find people who were proven guilty being cancelled.
The1st
The1st - 6/10/2024, 10:48 AM
@lazlodaytona - Yeah, it's pretty much 1 and 1A for me between Hatcher and Durance. Still give Terri the edge though, and she also toiled on what I now see as a pioneering CWesque show 😏
The1st
The1st - 6/10/2024, 10:49 AM
@ObserverIO - Yeah, that's my question and elephant in the room. How is Chloe handled.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 11:09 AM
@ObserverIO - Innocent until proven guilty is a very important legal concept, but we all know that that's not the only standard folks in a community are held to. I'm talking about people that didn't do the things they were accused of, not those that almost certainly did, just haven't been convicted of a crime.

Bottom line is, no one is obligated to work with anyone else (outside of pre-existing contractual agreements.) If people decide not to work with Spacey, Singer or Majors because of multiple, credible accusations of inappropriate on-set behavior; or with Whedon because he makes women on the set uncomfortable; or Miller because they're erratic to the point of being uninsurable, that's a business decision, plain and simple.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 11:23 AM
@The1st - I think because Chloe was found guilty it would be a different story in here case.

@clintthahamster - Kristen Kreuk would not fall into the category of proven innocent though, she just denied the accusations. Innocence is hard to prove too.

But of course it's worse to punish someone for something they didn't do than to not punish someone for something they did, so that's why we give preferential treatment to those who are not found guilty over those who are not found innocent (innocent until proven guilty).
Legally at least, on social media it's the opposite way around unfortunately. But people do be people.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 11:27 AM
@ObserverIO - But, again, proven innocent in a court of law is only one standard, with a narrow application. If someone in my workplace engaged in a pattern of abusive behavior, I would fire them, and if anyone asked me if they should hire that person in a similar job, I'd say no. That's not cancel culture, that's accountability.

In Kreuk's case, to my knowledge, she was never accused of anything specific, other than being conflated with her co-worker.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 11:36 AM
@clintthahamster - She was accused of being a part of the inner circle and recruiting people like Chloe (I forget her real name). Her and Chloe were fast friends in real life as well as on the show, so it is possible that the accusations had merit, since Chloe was second in charge of the whole darn racket.

Accountability is different, even blacklisting would not be the same as cancel culture. These are sensible things and not social viruses.
The1st
The1st - 6/10/2024, 11:39 AM
@ObserverIO - No, I'm not debating Kreuk. I assumed she'd be back. I'm just saying they're recasting for Mack, best case scenario. It's sad. I would've liked to have seen the whole gang back together before life happened and derailed that.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 11:43 AM
@The1st - Maybe they'll write her out and give her character a suitable ending, somehow. Maybe she was investigating something and died to get a message to Clark and her death it's what brings the whole gang back together, like Coulson in Avengers or something.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 11:48 AM
@ObserverIO - She recruited Allison Mack into the organization, true, but there have not been any credible accusations about her involvement in the more nefarious goings on at NXIVM that I've been able to find. I'm sure some folks on Twitter made some assumptions, but there's a difference between some random person online saying "I bet she did something bad," and someone involved in the organization saying "I know she did something bad.

But my original comment wasn't really about Kreuk. I just have a kneejerk reaction when people start talking about the dire threats of cancel culture.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 12:00 PM
@clintthahamster - A lot of people love cancel culture. People used to love hangings too. And lynchings. And watching Christians fed to the lions. Whenever people were in the stacks, in medieval times, no matter what they were found guilty of doing whether it was mass murder or stealing apples to feed their kids, whether it was rape or sharing negatory opinions about their rulers, people would love to go and throw things at them, spit on them, taunt them, sometimes even rape them. It was the done thing.

Most people love that kind of thing. Seriously, most people. That's what we're like, give us a good excuse, paint somebody as bad and we'll give 'em all we can.

Any justifiable excuse is all anyone ever needs to excercise their worst natures.
twistedcastles
twistedcastles - 6/10/2024, 12:04 PM
@ObserverIO - being accused on social media and in a court of law are different things

Kreuk was left out of the court proceedings because her story checked out and she was never a part of the top brass of the cult and left when she felt something was off

If Kristen had been as involved as the social media allegations she would have been brought forward in The trial as a witness or accused person

Laura Vandervoot who played Kara /Supergirl said Allison approached her and she was interested but she didnt have the money to join
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 12:21 PM
@twistedcastles - I'm glad Ms Vandervoort escaped. She seems nice.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 12:48 PM
@ObserverIO - I sincerely hope you can tell the difference between someone with multiple credible accusations of sexual impropriety having trouble getting work, and racially motivated extrajudicial executions. I'm sure that you're not comparing Kevin Spacey not being cast in Hollywood films following more than 50 accusations of sexual misconduct, to Emmett Till being beaten to death because a white girl said he asked her on a date, right? I'm sure you can see the differences in both severity and motivation, yeah?
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 1:50 PM
@clintthahamster - The bad things humans do to each other differ in severity yes.

People do love a good excuse to let their worst demons loose whether that be for a lynch mob or cancel culture, it comes from the same place.
Saying terrible things on the internet is not as bad as raping someone in the stacks, but both are examples of bad behaviour that is given free reign under the pretence of civility. Just because everybody's doing it doesn't make it right.

Have you ever heard of the Milgram experiment? That's the psychology I'm talking about.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 2:28 PM
@ObserverIO - I have heard of the Milgram experiment, yes. I've heard that the results were manipulated, that only roughly half of the participants believed that the electric shocks were real, and that, of that group, a clear majority refused to comply with the increasing intensity.

But, yes, of course, humans have shown a remarkable proclivity for dehumanizing their fellow humans, and use that dehumanization as an excuse for reprehenisble behavior. But refusing to hire someone who is widely reputed to be a serial sex pest is not that, full stop.

That you keep implying that cancel culture is the modern equivalent to lynching is actually kind of disturbing. Innocent people were (and still are) beaten to death because of the color of their skin. That is not the same thing as individuals having trouble getting work because of a longstanding pattern sexual misconduct in the workplace.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 3:02 PM
@clintthahamster - It should be disturbing. It is disturbing.

You're trying to diminish cancel culture by reducing it to Kevin Spacey not being hired by film studios.
He was "Widely reputed to be a sex pest". He was also found innocent. He had consensual relations with a young gay man.

But even if he is guilty it goes beyond his losing work. The entire world turned against him as a person. They all said reprehensible things about him.

You yourself on this very thread have said that you would like to see him die in prison.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2024, 3:06 PM
@clintthahamster - Also you're fixating on my one use of lynch mobs as an example of how humans do bad things to each other because they are socially encouraged to and you're trying to say that the comparison is reductive of lynch mobs.

This is quite similar to the cancellation of Gina Carano, don't you think? Another perfect example of how much people love to cancel people. It makes them salivate. I'm almost certain it turns them on sexually.
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 6/10/2024, 4:09 PM
@ObserverIO - It should be disturbing. It is disturbing.

Well, shit, mission accomplished then. But maybe just do a google image search for "lynching photos" or "Emmett Till death photo" and then do another google image search for "Kevin Spacey 2023" and let me know if you find any differences there.

He was "Widely reputed to be a sex pest". He was also found innocent.

He was not found innocent. He was found "Not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." OJ Simpson, too. Also Robert Blake, Oscar Pistorius, R. Kelly in 2002. Bill Cosby is a free man on a technicality. That doesn't mean no crime was committed, only that they weren't convicted.

As for Spacey, yes, he's been acquitted. Twice! He's also been accused by more than 50 individuals, across nearly 50 years and on several different continents. Maybe all 50+ dudes are just trying to get rich and famous, though. That's probably what it is. It's worked out great so far.

The entire world turned against him as a person. They all said reprehensible things about him.

Yeah, dude, that's what we're supposed to do when more than fifty people say "that guy sexually assaulted me."

You yourself on this very thread have said that you would like to see him die in prison.

That's an American idiom meaning "Spend the rest of their life paying for their crimes." I don't want to literally witness an execution. I'm opposed to the death penalty for anyone (not to mention prison for anyone other than MAYBE serial rapists.)

"you're fixating on my one use of lynch mobs as an example of how humans do bad things to each other because they are socially encouraged to and you're trying to say that the comparison is reductive of lynch mobs."

Hey, that's fair, you also mentioned public hangings, torture (assuming that by "stacks" you mean "stocks") and murder for sport. None of which are REMOTELY comparable to losing esteem in the public's eyes or having trouble finding work in one's preferred profession (though not even that in Spacey's case, as he's worked steadily in the last couple of years, and has had several prominent actors and directors come to his defense very recently.

And what about Louis CK? He was "cancelled," then sold out Madison Square Garden and nominated for a Grammy. Mel Gibson has been "cancelled" at least three times in the last 25 years and keeps getting work nonetheless. JK Rowling is still the richest author in the world and still has her publishing deal. The bottom line is, if people want to work with you, they will. If they don't, they won't.

This is quite similar to the cancellation of Gina Carano, don't you think?

What is? Spacey's cancellation? Or lynching. Because, neither, TBH. Carano was a washed up kickboxer with a handful of credits, mostly direct-to-video/VOD. She was fired by Disney for comparing the treatment of conservatives during the COVID pandemic to Jews during the Holocaust, which was stupid as shit, but far less severe an offense when compared to 50+ allegations of sexual misconduct. She also wasn't beaten to death for talking to a white woman. So, no, no accurate comparisons here.

Another perfect example of how much people love to cancel people. It makes them salivate. I'm almost certain it turns them on sexually.

Hey man, no kink shaming, if that's what you're into. But me? I was rooting for Carano and happy for her success. I'd followed her career since Haywire (I'm a big Soderberg guy and saw it in the theater) and was happy to see her back in Deadpool and Mandalorian. I also don't blame Disney in the slightest for distancing themselves from someone who mixed their COVID misinfo with anti-semitism (it wasn't just COVID misinfo, because Leticia Wright and Evangeline Lilly both kept their jobs.)
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