With DC Studios' Superman now less than a year away from swooping into theaters, the DCU will soon have a new Man of Tomorrow. Superman & Lois wraps up on The CW later this year and, despite frequent updates, that Smallville animated revival appears no closer to happening.
That means David Corenswet will soon be our one and only live-action Superman, though that could always change seeing as The Batman II and The Brave and the Bold are both on the way.
Back when Smallville was on the air, there were constant rumours about Bruce Wayne or Batman showing up. It never happened, though Clark Kent did finally cross paths with the Dark Knight in a comic book sequel series.
Talking at TerrifiCon (via KSiteTV), Superman himself, Tom Welling, shared his thoughts on how Bruce Wayne could have factored into The CW series.
"I always thought that we should have had Bruce Wayne pass through somehow," the actor told fans during a Q&A. "That would have been really cool to see. Like, you know how Clark always got into the Luthor Mansion with no problem? [What if] he had gone into Lex’s office, and it was just as simple as Lex being like 'Good to meet you, Bruce,' or 'I’ll talk to you later, Bruce,' and have him just walk out."
Welling added, "I think that would have been cool, but one of the challenges we had is DC movies and DC television don’t talk to each other."
There were some talks of a potential meeting in the early 2000s, though it didn't happen. Smallville showrunner Alfred Gough previously said, "To be honest, that was more of a pipe dream, only because at that point, the feature side and [Christopher] Nolan were developing Batman Begins, [but] we always thought if we put it out in the press, maybe we could get them to turn the corner."
Fellow showrunner Miles Millar added, "It was always our dream to have Batman...young Bruce Wayne. It was always our dream to have young Diana Prince, and both were shattered at the feet of Warner Bros. features. It all changed when the head of production at the feature studio left. And the idea that you couldn’t make a movie and make a TV series of the same character at the same time."
That attitude to having certain characters be off-limits to TV shows continued right through to the conclusion of the DCEU last year. However, with DC Studios now in charge of the DCU, we expect that to change courtesy of one cohesive shared universe similar to the MCU.
Are you disappointed that Batman never appeared in Smallville?