Yahoo Lifestyle Tom Welling Says Animated Smallville Sequel Series Has Stalled: ‘It’s Not a Priority’ for Warner Bros.
Smallville alumni Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum would love to get the show’s animated sequel series off the ground… if only a Warner Bros. executive would call them back.
More than three years after Welling first told TVLine that he and Rosenbaum were working on an animated Smallville follow-up, the actor has now shared with ScreenRant that the project is in limbo while he and Rosenbaum await a go-ahead from Warner Bros. Television, which co-produced the original series.
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“The honest answer is we have not been able to get Warner Bros. to give us the thumbs-up. We need their permission,” Welling revealed, adding with a laugh, “We haven’t even gotten a response!”
Welling — who played Clark Kent on the WB/CW series — conceded that the project is “more of a fan-driven idea,” meaning “it’s not going to be a blockbuster” or “financial windfall” for the creatives involved.
“We all like each other, we all like working together, and if we could do it, it’d be fun,” he continued. “But Warner Bros. — and I’m not hating on them — they just haven’t gotten back to us. It’s not a priority for them. It’s like a not-returning-phone-calls thing.”
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In October 2021, while reflecting on Smallville‘s run for its 20th anniversary, Welling said he and Rosenbaum (aka Lex Luthor) were developing an animated series set after the events of Smallville, which would ideally involve many of the original actors — “the John Glovers, the Annette O’Tooles and everybody else” — as well as Smallville co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.
Welling now reiterates that Gough and Millar are still his dream collaborators, but they’re currently working on Netflix’s Wednesday, now in production on its second season.
“I think because it’s not a big financial gain for anybody, it’s getting less [priority],” he said.
Smallville initially aired on The WB from 2001 to 2006, then on The CW from 2006 until its conclusion in 2011. The series followed Welling’s Clark as he came of age in the titular Kansas town, before he eventually became Superman.
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