Tom Welling talks Superman and how there WAS talks for him to return to the role in The CW’s Supergirl

Remember a while ago there was this (awesome) rumour that Smallville star Tom Welling might appear in one of the Arrow-verse shows as Superman (here)?

Well, obviously it never happened as Tyler Hoechlin ended up playing Superman in Supergirl, while several stars from various other past DC TV Shows cameoed in various roles. Obviously, with the DC Multiverse playing a big role in the Arrow-verse, we wanted Welling as Supes because it would tie the Smallville universe in too.

However, in a new interview the actor confirms that there WAS something to it and it could have happened had ne hot drawn a one under it himself: “I know Greg [Berlanti – Supergirl showrunner] quite well and there had been some discussion, but they’re different worlds,” Welling says. “There was an idea that maybe Supergirl, appearing on that, but it’s such a different show. I’m older now, I don’t look the same. Appearing on that show as Clark Kent or even Superman, for me, I would not want to watch me do that at all. They just have such a different tone.”

However, the actor – we could debate if he’s right or not until the cows come home (he’s not) – has joined Lucifer, another DC series, so technically, there’s  connection there still, right?: “Lucifer is still DC, so in some ways it’s one foot in, one foot out, but it wasn’t a motivator for me to join the show. It just so happens that it was connected in that way,” he says.

But don’t despair too much my friends, there was a connection between the two universes that we previously reported on here.

But what of Smallville? Welling, never truly got to wear the Superman suit in the show… remember the finale? He opens the shirt, the S is there then… Boom! He’s gone.

Well, it seems that was the plan all along: “It was something that we discussed before we ever shot the pilot with [creators] Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar].

“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. And, at the time, because of where visual effects and special effects and stunts were, it would be too expensive. That’s mainly why they save that for movies, more or less.”

Talking about the struggle of the young Clark, he said: “We did things on that show where we didn’t call them powers, we called them abilities — you weren’t allowed to say powers; you just weren’t because Clark didn’t know they were powers, he just knew he had those abilities, so little things like kept us grounded and kept us faced onto the story we were telling about this character, not what he could do with these abilities.”

Although it seems that putting on the suit for at least a while longer was almost a thing: “Our series 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. It was a call that I had with Peter Roth, who is the head of Warner Bros. Television, who’s a good friend of mine and we have a great relationship. I said, ‘That’s not our show, Peter.’ 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.’”

I have to confess, I never made it to the end of Smallville, although it is a show I hope to return to someday, but given the four or five seasons I did watch, I honestly think Clark putting on the suit and becoming Superman would have felt out of place in the show. But maybe I’m wrong…

Let us know your thoughts. Would you like to have seen Welling back as Superman in the Arrow-verse? would you like to have seen more of him as Superman in Smallville? We want to know, guys…

Source: EW