Prepare to see Smallville like never before, as the DC TV series arrives on Blu-ray for the first time in 20 years. Smallville: The Complete Series set will collect all ten seasons of the show, which followed Clark Kent's adventures before he became Superman. From his high school years through college to the day he donned his red and blue suit, Smallville revealed what forged this Kryptonian refugee into the Man of Steel, as well as the friends -- and enemies -- he made along the way.
Speaking to CBR, Smallville stars Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum reflected on the series and what it has meant to them over the years. They explained why it feels "like a different lifetime" now and why they probably won't be showing up in the Arrowverse anytime soon. They expressed their hope that fans new and old will come away from the series loving these characters and shared why the collaborative environment they experienced on set continues to stick with them today. They also teased some progress on their Smallville animated series, discussed why the TV format set this Superman story apart from the films and more.
CBR: With Smallville moving to streaming and coming out on Blu-ray, the show is getting exposed to a new audience. What do you think new viewers should know about the series before they dive in?
Michael Rosenbaum: I would just say you're in for a real treat. This is a really fun story. It's a story before the story. It's the story before Clark becomes Superman, before Lex becomes evil Lex Luthor. It's just a great story, well-told and shot. I just think it's a great story, and it's going to be a lot of fun for them.
Welling: I would also say take your time. Part of what happens is we -- you know, the show took 10 years to come out. People who originally watched it had to wait a week. Now you're going to get a Blu-ray with all just tremendous, amazing stuff in it.
Rosenbaum: It will look amazing!
Welling: But only watch one or two at a time, and then take a beat.
Rosenbaum: But people binge! People binge! How many episodes were there, Tom?
Welling: Don't binge too fast! Only 222.
Rosenbaum: Only 222. I did 160, but that was a quite a bit -- quite a bit. But it's exciting. I think the Blu-ray comes out October 19. I'm going to get a set. I'm going to give some to my family. It'll be nice to see it in the best quality possible to really start the journey.
Welling: Yeah, it'll be new for us... I think you and I should watch it.
Rosenbaum: [laughs] The entire series?
Welling: Watch the entire series, videotape ourselves commenting on it.
Rosenbaum: Well, we can start a podcast! Inside of You with Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum, and we just watch old episodes and analyze the episodes and the guest stars... We do 200 episodes. I bet that would be huge.
Welling: We could do it in one day!
Rosenbaum: That would take more than one day. Each episode was an hour.
It's been 20 years since the series launched on the WB -- back before it had become The CW, even. How has all that time changed the way you reflect on the series?
Welling: It feels like a different life to me.
Rosenbaum: It does feel like a different lifetime.
Welling: It's just a different life.
Rosenbaum: You were so absorbed. We're so absorbed in the show and the characters --
Welling: I'm so much happier now. My life is so much better than when I did -- like, we did it. Don't get me wrong... but it literally feels like another lifetime.
Rosenbaum: Yeah. I agree with Tom. I think it's like, you know, now I'm 49 years old. I started doing the show when I was like 26. I was a kid, wet behind the ears and just absorbing so much and learning so much. Now, when you take a look at it after all these years --
Welling: And you're like, "Damn, you were really good in that role!" [laughs]
Rosenbaum: I'm just proud! I'm proud of us. I'm proud of the show. I'm proud of what we did and the success it had. We're very lucky.
Welling: Sometimes I forget we did it!
Rosenbaum: It seems like we're removed, like it was a world ago, a long time ago. Even though it was 10 years since the series ended, it does seem like, I mean, we were a lot younger and eager and probably more motivated at the time.
Welling: I know, it's a bad answer. Who wants to hear that the guy who played Clark Kent on Smallville for 10 years thinks he didn't do it? It's just a different -- anybody who's ever been a teenager, in their 20s/30s/40s, there's different periods of your life. I guess that's what I'm speaking to... but it was an experience [when we were] younger and we moved on from it.
Rosenbaum: Yeah, not only that, but you got to remember that -- especially Tom -- you're on this show, the people you're hanging out with, you're hanging out with them 100 times more than you are your own family and your friends. This is your family. For me, it was for seven years. For him, it was 10 years. So it's an awesome thing, but also, you're so again enveloped in this world that when you get out, you're like, "What did I miss?" You missed a lot! Now you're getting to talk to your friends again, you're seeing your family.
Welling: It's like being in a submarine.
Rosenbaum: It's like being in a submarine! But then, it was thankfully so, because there was no social media. There was nothing to distract us that much. We were in Vancouver, and I think it was the perfect world. I really do.
The Superman mythology extends even further back, all the way from 1938. What do you think it is about these characters that keeps people coming back to them time and again?
Rosenbaum: Well, I think that they're iconic. They're something that had been part of the history of -- I mean, if not the world, I mean, at least since the beginning of the century. When did they write Superman? It was probably in the, what, the 20s or 30s? 1938, thank you for that education! But it's been around for so long, and people need an escape. They escape through comics; they escape through movies, through TV shows, and why it's so popular now is because we need that escape.
Welling: You can also delve into the idea that, in 1938, when Superman came out, and what society needed and their hope that they need to invest in. As you go on through history, we embody these characters before that even happened, but also it's hope. I think the characters represent what we could be. I think that's an important thing, especially when there's a lot of people out there we don't want to be like.
Rosenbaum: Yeah, there's good in the world. There really is good in the world. He embodies that.
Welling: I mean, Lex wasn't trying to do better.
Rosenbaum: Lex was trying to do good. He was trying to do good, but outside forces or whatever prevented that, and he really struggled. I think role models are important. Lex didn't have a great role model. Clark had a great role model in his father. It tells a lot of different stories, and it really deals with societal importance --
Welling: I think we should have done like a three-part miniseries where Lionel found Clark, and Lex somehow was raised by the Kents.
Rosenbaum: Could you imagine if I was raised by the Kents? We would switch roles!
What do you hope Smallville adds to that Superman legacy?
Rosenbaum: It's just part of the history. I think it adds more history to it. You know, he played Clark Kent for the longest that anybody's ever played Clark Kent. I was bald for more years than Lex Luthor has ever been bald on an ongoing series. I think people remember the quality of the show, the characters and the world we created. I think it stands the test of time.
Welling: I think it also, what we were able to do because we were on television, because we had the ability to have character development, is the human side that you don't see in the films. There's no time for that. So I think you got to understand Lex Luthor; you got to understand Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, whoever you want. You have a chance to understand them better. I think that the television shows and the movies don't exactly match up, though maybe they should a little bit more.
Of course, the story isn't quite over yet. Tom, you mentioned a while back that there's an animated series in the works. What can you tell me about that?
Rosenbaum: Well, look, we're not allowed really to talk about it now, because it's in the early stages. So we're developing it. We're trying to see what happens with it, but that's about all I can say right now.
Welling: With Al and Miles!
Rosenbaum: Yeah. With Al and Miles. We're trying. And obviously, Warner Bros.
Welling: We can't talk about it, but we would love to.
Rosenbaum: We're getting our pitch ready. Let's just say that. That's all we can say.
Welling: It's gonna happen.
Rosenbaum: We just love the relationships and we love the characters on Smallville. I think a lot of people wish that it would keep going and there's possibilities --
Welling: Yeah, one of the things I hear from fans is like, "Why did you guys stop?!" Well, I can give a million reasons why we stopped, but I also understand why a fan would want it to go on. I feel the same way about other projects that I'm a fan of, like, "Keep going! Keep going!" And just there are limitations at some point. We ran out of story for Clark. Clark had to become Superman, and Smallville could not be a Superman series. It just wasn't built that way. So what we're trying to do is sort of jumping into this other arena where we can maybe service that idea and have fun doing so.
Rosenbaum: Agreed.
Warner Bros. has a tradition of bringing past superhero actors into its current projects. For instance, Erica Durance went from Lois on Smallville to Alura on Supergirl, and the legendary Christopher Reeve played a new character on Smallville. Is that something you'd be interested in doing -- say, on a project like Superman & Lois?
Rosenbaum: I don't know, and it's tough, because if you say no, you look like an ass. It's not a matter of no; it just has to be fitting. It has to work.
Welling: From a tone perspective, as well.
Rosenbaum: Yeah, it just has to be something that I'm like, "You know what? I can do something really great there. They respect the character. I respect this piece." It just has to be the right situation. So people ask that, you know, "Why don't you come back to the Arrowverse thing?", when you went back. I had my reasons, and they were good reasons.
Welling: Yeah, and me showing up the way I did was a very specific circumstance where I was like, "Wow, these guys wrote something that totally works for the Clark that I played and the Clark in this world." Me showing up on [ Superman & Lois] right now, like, I mean...
Rosenbaum: It'd be like, "What?"
Welling: It's just not the same energy.
Rosenbaum: Yeah. It's a different show. They're different.
Welling: Like, you could show up as Jimmy Olsen and be better than a Lex Luthor.
Rosenbaum: Maybe!
Welling: You know what I mean? Just because it doesn't translate. The tonality is different. We'd be better off going on Arrow -- well, Arrow is gone -- but I'd be better off showing up on Flash, you know what I mean? Or something like that. Or Batwoman.
Rosenbaum: Are you saying you want to show up on Flash?
Welling: No, I'm not.
Rosenbaum: You were insinuating that you -- ?
Welling: You heard it here first!
What is one of your favorite memories from your work on the series, whether it be on set or a fan interaction in later years?
Rosenbaum: Mine really is collaboration. You know, there's so many people doing their jobs and just being on set. One time I played Zod -- this character Zod -- where I came in on this wire and not really knowing what the character is, and Tom helping me out and --
Welling: They basically flew him in on a wire from the helicopter to land down like a space alien.
Rosenbaum: And then I say, "Kneel to Zod!"
Welling: He kept twisting!
Rosenbaum: I kept twisting around on the wire, and I felt like a jackass! What's going on here?! But just, I remember moments of like, they always wanted you to be the best you could. We didn't say cut unless they felt like you were the best, like you were giving a good performance, and that you were playing the character how it should be played. I really appreciate that. A lot of great memories. Tom and I have so many memories that we could talk about, but what do you remember?
Welling: Well, there was that thing, like, if we don't get it, we're not moving on. There wasn't just like, "Okay, that's good enough." Good enough never worked! And by the way, sometimes I wished it did. There were times where I thought it was good enough., and people called me on it and we had to keep going, but that's maybe why we lasted 10 years. I mean, there's a million different memories I have from it, but the collective trust and safe environment that I think we had as a cast, I think, is very rare. I've had many people tell me that that doesn't happen very often.
Rosenbaum: So yeah. So there you go!
What do you hope fans take away from the series, once they've finished watching it?
Rosenbaum: I hope they enjoy the show, but I also hope that they can relate to a character on the show, because there's so many really great characters, whether they love Clark, whether they like Lex or Lois, or whatever it is. I think, on some level, they can connect with everybody, that there's something in each character that they might be able to connect to. I just think that this series stands up it. It holds up, and especially coming out on Blu-ray now, I think people are gonna get to see it the way that we want them to see it.
Welling: I can't wait to see it on Blu-ray. I've never seen it on Blu-ray!
Rosenbaum: Watch it here! Watch it on the big screen, in the screening room! But you know, it's [been] so many years now and we go to conventions and hundreds of people are there to see us, that we feel like we're doing something right. It's holding up in new generations, whether they're watching on Hulu or whether they're gonna watch the Blu-ray, they're coming now. We're getting to meet younger fans and newer fans. It's really exciting, and I just hope that continues.
Welling: I agree. I just hope that people, when they watch this show, they don't feel like they've wasted their time. I felt that when we were shooting the show. Yes, the show was an hour what it was aired; it's really only 41 minutes and 26 seconds or whatever it is because the ads are taken out. But I don't want to sit down and feel like I wasted 42 minutes of my time. Yeah, so hopefully the Blu-ray just...
Rosenbaum: Entices them!
Welling: Yeah!
Smallville: The Complete Series arrives on Blu-ray for the first time ever on Tuesday, Oct. 19.
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