The CW series Smallville was a trailblazer in the realm of TV superhero shows, credited with paving the way for the Arrowverse. It followed young Clark Kent growing up in Smallville, Kansas, trying to live a "normal" life while coming to terms with his superhuman abilities and Kryptonian heritage. Throughout the series, Clark grows into his powers and learns to embrace them. Smallville's finale shows him stepping into his destiny, fully becoming Superman.
Throughout Smallville, Clark encountered many other heroes from the DC Comics. Green Arrow, Impulse, Cyborg and Aquaman were just a few of the plethora of characters featured. These four also became Smallville's Justice League and were supposed to get their own spin-off series, but it never came to fruition.
In Season 6, Episode 11, "Justice," Smallville's Justice League was officially introduced as a team, consisting of the previously listed four heroes. All were already established by this time in the series, but this episode was the first time they appeared officially as Justice League, though they never used that actual name.
According to Smallville writer Steven DeKnight, "Justice" was supposed to be the gateway to the Justice League spinoff. With Oliver Queen as team leader, Justice League was going to help defend Metropolis in their own series. A 2016 article quotes DeKnight explaining the initial idea for the show. The writer stated, "The idea was that Oliver Queen was basically giving refuge to young people with superpowers, kind of in a Professor X kind of way, putting together this team and also trying to help out these people..."
In the same article, DeKnight also revealed the creators had big plans for the Justice League series, including the reappearance of the villain, Brainiac. "We had talked about bringing Brainiac back, quite possibly in a different form, played by a different actor... We talked about bringing him back as a woman," DeKnight said. He elaborated further, saying he had a "master-plan" for the character, but wouldn't reveal what that was.
Ultimately, the Justice League spinoff never came to be, and the reason for this was never confirmed. DeKnight did say he was disappointed that Justice League didn't happen, saying, "We really wanted to make this show, and we thought it would be really, really cool." Though the spinoff was canceled, Smallville continued its run, rounding out at a total of ten great seasons.
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