SMALLVILLE Animated Revival Gets Encouraging Update as Tom Welling Fights to Bring the Series Back

The long-awaited Smallville animated sequel series still hasn't received the green light, but Tom Welling isn't giving up on bringing Clark Kent and the gang back for another adventure. In fact, he's feeling pretty optimistic about the project's future, and it sounds like the original cast is just as excited to return.

Fans have been hearing about the potential Smallville animated revival for years, with Welling and Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor, working to get the project off the ground. While there's been some progress creatively, the biggest obstacle remains getting Warner Bros. to officially approve it.

Speaking with ScreenRant, Welling explained where things currently stand and revealed that the cast members they've approached are ready to jump back into their roles.

“It was an uphill battle before the whole merger thing, and I don’t pretend to understand any of that. But I think this is a labor of love for the fans. The idea would be that it would be animated, but all the original cast members would voice their characters, and every cast member we’ve talked to has been like, ‘That would be awesome. Let’s do it.’”

That's certainly encouraging for fans who have been hoping to revisit the world of Smallville. Getting the original actors back to voice their characters would make the animated continuation feel like a proper extension of the series rather than a completely new take on the material.

Welling also revealed that the creative team has already put together some early artwork, including a poster that hasn't been made public. Unfortunately, none of that can move forward without permission from Warner Bros.

“We have some early renderings from an artist; we have a poster for it already that, obviously, we can’t share, but the actual answer is Warner Bros. has to give us the green light. They have to let us use their IP, and that just hasn’t happened yet. But we’re still fighting. Yeah, we’re optimistic about it,”

The project also has the support of original Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, who previously developed what Rosenbaum described as a “spectacular” pitch for the animated series.

Of course, getting the show approved could be complicated by the changes happening at Warner Bros. and DC. Between the corporate shakeups involving Paramount, Skydance, and Warner Bros., and the new DC Universe being developed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, it's unclear where a Smallville sequel would fit into the company's plans.

Rosenbaum previously expressed concerns about whether Gunn would be interested in bringing the series back, especially with DC already moving forward with its own Superman stories.

“Right now—I won’t say anything, but—I feel like James and that world, they have all their ideas of what they’re doing, and I’m not sure Smallville is part of that equation.”

It's a reasonable concern, although an animated continuation of Smallville could easily exist as its own separate story without interfering with the current DCU. After all, the series already established its own version of the Superman mythology over ten seasons.

As for what the sequel would actually look like, Welling has a pretty straightforward idea. Rather than jumping decades into the future, he'd like to pick up shortly after the original series finale and explore what happened next.

“Al and Miles have very much said that they’d be on board. In my mind, it would pick up relatively quickly after Smallville ended, and we would do our own spin on what happens after that. That’s my idea. Whether that’s the case, I don’t know.”

That could be a fun direction for the series, especially since Smallville ended just as Clark Kent was fully stepping into his role as Superman. An animated sequel would finally give fans the chance to see Welling's version of the Man of Steel take on new adventures without the limitations of a live-action television production.

For now, the Smallville animated sequel remains a passion project waiting for Warner Bros. to say yes. The original creators are interested, the actors want to return, and there's already been creative work done to bring the idea to life.

Hopefully, Warner Bros. eventually gives Welling and Rosenbaum the opportunity to make it happen. There's still a lot of story left to tell in this version of the Superman universe, and getting the original team back together for one more run would be pretty awesome.