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.