SMALLVILLE Star Tom Welling Reveals Alternate Series Finale Ending And Makes Shocking Costume Revelation

SMALLVILLE Star Tom Welling Reveals Alternate Series Finale Ending And Makes Shocking Costume Revelation

Smallville star Tom Welling has revealed that the show's series finale originally played out a little differently and reveals that he was wearing even less of Superman's suit than you might expect...

By JoshWilding - Nov 05, 2024 05:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Smallville
Source: Screen Rant

It's no secret that Tom Welling had no desire to wear Superman's iconic costume in the Smallville series finale. We've previously heard that he didn't wish to be remembered solely for being in the suit, though his stance does seem to have softened since then. 

During those final few seasons, the series toyed with giving Clark Kent a costume but, for the most part, continued to stick to that frustrating "no flights, no tights" rule. 

As a result, the Smallville finale only showed Superman from afar. It ultimately ended with a shot of the hero tearing open his shirt to reveal the iconic "S" (The CW series was allowed to use the costume Brandon Routh wore in Superman Returns). 

Talking at Comic Con Stockholm (via Screen Rant), Welling shared original plans for the ending and confirmed he pushed back on a full suit reveal. The actor also revealed how little of the Man of Steel's costume he had on beneath that shirt. 

"[In] one of the final [scenes,] Clark opens his shirt and finally leaps off the building. That was written [in] a completely different way. They had written where Clark sees the suit, then cut to him, pulling it on and putting the boots on."

"Do you guys remember Kiefer Sutherland's 24? That show just ended, and one of the things they did in that show, it's a satellite image from space, and he's talking to [the] satellite imaging, knowing that Chloe, who he works with, is watching, and he's saying goodbye. He's saying, 'I can't stay, but I gotta go' and I remember the takeaway from that to me was here's a guy who's gonna go out there, is gonna fight the good fight. We can't go with him, but it allows our imagination to believe he's still out there."

"I took that and when we were trying to figure it out in the series, I referenced that the idea that this character is gonna go out there, he's gonna be out there. We can't go with it. And that's how that all came about. There was a bit of a discussion and limitation on what shots we were going to use, it was me, and Greg Beeman, who directed the episode. But the idea was I was going to force them on a crane shot to come into gear. After that, the show was over, and because it was a crane shot, and no, I wouldn't allow them to shoot any other angles of it, because that's what I wanted that and then to go on."

"So the wardrobe department went, 'So we're only going to see this? Okay.' So they made me a crop top with no sleeves. They didn't want to pay for the whole suit, and I didn't mind, I didn't want to wear a suit! [laughs] So when I go like this [mimics the shirt rip going further,] if I've gone any further, you'd have see my belly button."

When we recently spoke to Welling for his new movie Mafia Wars, the actor admitted he'd now like to wear Superman's costume on screen.

Unfortunately, we'd imagine the ship has sailed given DC Studios' DCU plans (which don't appear to include any Multiversal shenanigans).

You can watch that interview below. 

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POWERDUDE
POWERDUDE - 11/5/2024, 6:11 AM
Put Tom on a solid training regime, get him in shape, then ultimately put him in a Kingdom Come Suit, have him just floating in the skies of Metropolis….. BOOM!!!!

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lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/5/2024, 9:45 AM
@POWERDUDE - nope. Brandon Routh deserves that role until he dies. No offense to Welling whom refused to put the suit on for 10 years and showed us partial shots of him in the suit for the series finale.... plus he's not a good actor, NO FRICKIN' way
jratz
jratz - 11/5/2024, 10:55 AM
@lazlodaytona - nah. Tom gave 10 years.
Hoot3
Hoot3 - 11/5/2024, 11:18 AM
@lazlodaytona - to be fair, it was the creators and writers that refused the suit for 10 years, not Tom. Tom only refused for the finale.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/10/2024, 6:45 PM
@jratz - nah, welling is a disaster. a typical WB/CW channel actor. I can't take it anymore.

They thought so less of him with the Super/Man: Christopher Reeve Story the directos didn't even involve Reeve's two spots on Smallville season 2.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/10/2024, 6:49 PM
@Hoot3 - Honestly, there were tons of interviews where Tom said he didn't feel like being in the suit because the show was about Clark Kent. Now, he's gotten so thick he seems he couldn't really look like the role of Superman.
DiegoMD
DiegoMD - 11/5/2024, 6:20 AM
I don't get why he was so opposed to wearing the costume
Moltenman
Moltenman - 11/5/2024, 6:52 AM
@DiegoMD - I don’t get why they made a crop top because they didn’t want to pay for the full costume but if you are ruining the whole top part of the costume wouldn’t you have to buy it all?
AC1
AC1 - 11/5/2024, 7:49 AM
@Moltenman - it could be that the Superman logo was detachable on the Returns suit and that they were able to basically just pay to use that and then attached it to a blue crop top they made in house instead - because yeah surely just cutting the original suit up makes no sense in terms of saving money 😅
ShimmyShimmyYA
ShimmyShimmyYA - 11/5/2024, 8:31 AM
@Moltenman - they made a spandex crop top and slapped a logo on it. They didn’t build a whole costume and then cut it
newhire13
newhire13 - 11/5/2024, 6:17 PM
@DiegoMD - It wouldn’t have been the show he signed on for. He actually had no interest in the show originally because he didn’t want to play Superman. They finally got him interested because they told him it’s not about Superman, it’s about Clark Kent. The idea of it being about this kid before all the superhero stuff is what he found interesting. Once he puts on that suit, the show is over and stops being Smallville.
POWERDUDE
POWERDUDE - 11/5/2024, 8:24 AM
Here’s what I would propose. If at any point WB want to go down the multiverse route again with DC, should they want to revisit other previous Superman actors…. do it in a series format. The film interconnectivity simply doesn’t work for them. It’s too rushed a format. I would propose him turning up in one episode of a DC high budget series, where the multiverse is involved. Both him & Rosenbaum as the greatest live action adaption of Luthor, still to this day.

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lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/5/2024, 9:49 AM
@POWERDUDE - I agree with this 1000%.
Only in a MAX series for the fun of it..... Rosenbaum is a great actor but Welling is CW level acting. so......
Steel86
Steel86 - 11/5/2024, 9:50 AM
He's said this many times. The only real revelation is how much of the shirt he actually had on. And to anyone asking why or not understanding its simply not the show he signed up to do. He never wanted to be a superhero and actually turned down the audition at first. They sold him on no tights no flights and he stuck to his guns till literally the end.
HistoryofMatt
HistoryofMatt - 11/5/2024, 6:50 PM
@Steel86 - You have to appreciate the dedication to the original vision for the show. They definitely got around it with the whole "Red-Blue Blur" and then "Blur" thing.
PartyKiller
PartyKiller - 11/5/2024, 5:46 PM
In 2011 Welling was a young guy and about 5 years later he was a middle aged guy. Now he's 65.

He should seriously have his heart and cardio system checked. No one ages like that without a problem.
HistoryofMatt
HistoryofMatt - 11/5/2024, 6:50 PM
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Smallville, because it was very much in keeping with the Christopher Reeve-ethos of who Superman is. It was hopeful and optimistic in a time (it literally debuted 5 weeks after September 11th) when we desperately needed hope and optimism in our media. While I love shows like Battlestar Galactica, which dealt with the sturm und drang of the world in which we lived better than any, Smallville was this nice little show that yeah, could be a little WB / CW dopey with the teen soap stuff, but also gave us the greatest live action Lex Luthor and Jonathan and Martha Kent we've ever had and probably the best Lois Lane if we're being honest.

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