There have been rumblings about Smallville continuing as an animated series for several years now and, as we write this, it doesn't appear any closer to actually happening.
Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum remain keen to make the sequel a reality and the former shared an update (via KSiteTV) while appearing at the Terrificon convention in Connecticut this past weekend.
"We've been talking about it for a few years," Welling acknowledged while addressing fans. "We want to do a Smallville comic book and animated series, and then we would all voice the characters. We’ve already got an artist, and we have a poster."
"We haven’t been able to share it yet, but Lionel Luthor is looming over everybody, and it’s really cool, but we just we we can’t do anything without DC saying we can do it," he continued. "They just haven’t given us a green light, but we’re ready, and Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar], who wrote Smallville, want to write it., but it’s not our property, until they say we can do it."
It sounds like it's on James Gunn and DC Studios to make this happen, though Welling later admitted that a Smallville revival is unlikely to be a money-maker for Warner Bros. Discovery.
"It would be more of a labor of love," he said. "It’s not going to make a billion dollars, so the studio is kind of like [grumbles]. Maybe we can do a - not a GoFundMe, because that’s financial - but like a petition. We can petition Warner Bros. to let us do it."
While Smallville had a pretty definitive ending (and one which saw Welling decide against donning the Superman costume), comic books have since been released continuing Clark Kent's story. However, he may be eager to revisit the hero's story for another reason.
During a surprise cameo appearance in The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, we learned that Welling's Superman had, for some reason, given up his powers to focus on his wife and family. Fans of Smallville weren't happy and neither, it seems, was Welling.
"I don't know if that's actually the Clark from Smallville," the actor told fans, "because it's a multiverse, so you never know. And I don't know how he lost his powers. No one ever told me."
"Tom and I are working on a Smallville animated series that we're trying to get made. It's gonna take time," Michael Rosenbaum said earlier this summer. "But the creators of Smallville are attached, they want to be a part of it. And we, you know, when it's the right time, we'll pitch it."
He added, "You know, we're working on it and we have some loose animation that we've worked [on] with someone who was just awesome. It looks great. So if we can get that made, that'd be awesome."
Stay tuned for updates on Smallville's future as we have them.