Smallville star Tom Welling disappointed fans by refusing to wear Superman's iconic costume in the show's series finale and while he did tear open his shirt to reveal that in the closing moments, he was never pictured from head to toe in it. Instead, we saw a tiny CGI Superman from afar and Welling from the neck down. At the time, it was said Welling didn't want to have his career defined by a shot of him wearing that costume but the actor has now shed some light on why he made that decision.
"Our finale was supposed to be, in the first act, Clark puts on the suit and flies around, saves Lois on a plane, and does this other stuff," Welling said of his disappointment with the episode. "It was a call that I had with Peter Roth, who is the head of WB Television, who’s a good friend of mine and we have a great relationship. I said, ‘That’s not our show.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s going to be great,” and I go, ‘Yeah, but just think about what we’ve been doing. If we just jump into that, we haven’t earned it.’"
However, it sounds like a compromise was ultimately reached. Sort of. "We jumped onto this idea that at the end of the show, the idea is that Clark becomes Superman and he’s out there, and we know he’s out there, but we can’t go with him, but that we know and we feel good that he’s out there doing good. I hope the audience didn’t feel like we didn’t show them something that they needed to see. I felt like we gave them the jumping off point for their imagination as to what could happen."
The network clearly wanted Superman in the finale, while Welling did not. The actor wouldn't wear the suit so they were forced to use a CGI model and camera trickery to make it happen and then delivered a closing scene which made the actor happy as it definitely teased his future as the Man of Steel.
"It was something that we discussed before we ever shot the pilot," Welling said of the "no flights/tights" rule which led to him feeling the way he did about donning the iconic hero's costume on screen. "We literally had a sit down where we talked about the show and I asked about the suit and the tights and the flying, and they said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ Part of the reason being is that show is about a teenager trying to figure out who he is. They felt that once Clark put on the cape and the suit, life became too easy, in a sense. They wanted to focus on who this character was before that."
How do you feel about Welling's explanation? As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts below.
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.