‘It’s a big problem’… 14 years after Smallville ended, Tom Welling regrets the idea didn’t come to fruition

Through ten seasons of Smallville, which tells the story of Clark Kent’s youth before he became Superman, Tom Welling admits he has only one real regret: never getting to meet Batman on screen.

to Arrow Nation on the CW, Smallville There was a big DC series of the channel which was very popular with the fans. Over the seasons, it introduced many iconic superheroes, but some characters like Batman didn’t stick around.

During Terrificon 2024 (broadcast by Screen ratio), Tom Welling He explained that he would very much like Bruce Wayne to appear in the series. According to him, the meeting between Clark and Bruce could have been very easily staged, just like the many times when Clark easily walked into Luthor’s mansion to visit Lex (Michael Rosenbaum).

“I’ve always thought we should get Bruce Wayne in somehow. That would be really cool to see. You know how Clark used to walk into Luthor’s mansion without a problem? He could walk into Lex’s office and it would be so easy, Lex saying “Nice to meet you Bruce” or “I’ll talk to you later Bruce” as he walked out, I think that would be cool!“, he explained.

However, the actor clarifies that the main difficulty arose from the fact that the worlds of DC films and series did not connect with each other. This made it very difficult to use characters like Batman on TV, and even things like Superman’s soundtrack were problematic.

“But one of the challenges we’ve had is that the DC movies and TV don’t communicate with each other, and it’s very difficult as a series to use that – it’s a big problem, even just using the Superman soundtrack.“

Batman is finally finding his place… on paper

If fans have never seen Batman with Clark in a live-action series, the paperback version helped fill that void. After the show ended in 2011, Smallville Brought to life in comic book form: Season 11, published by DC Comics in 2012-2013 and written by Brian K. by Miller, expanded the universe of the series.

In this new chapter, Batman is finally introduced and interacts with Superman. Freed from the budgetary constraints of television, this version allowed the two legendary heroes to actually clash and develop their adventures together, including with the Justice League.

While fans had to settle for this written version, it offered a great opportunity to see Superman Tom WellingMeet the masked vigilante in the cartoon version. And who knows? If the Smallville animated series — which is currently on hold — finally sees the light of day, he could one day even lend his voice to Clark in that continuity with Batman.

dIYou can still watch Season 10 of Smallville streaming on Prime Video here.