You can never have too many Supermen, so it seems. Tom Welling of Smallville fame will be appearing in the massive televised DC/CW crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. The event will see at least three different versions of Superman all played by past and present actors, including Brandon Routh who currently plays Ray Palmer (Atom) in Legends of Tomorrow. Routh will be reprising his role as Superman as a continuation from his 2006 Superman Returns film along current CW Superman Tyler Hoechlin, who made his debut as the character in CW’s Supergirl.
It seems that ever since the Crisis on Infinite Earth’s conception, the plan was always to somehow find a way to get Welling back into the role of Clark Kent. Executive producer Marc Guggenheim chimed in to elaborate on the Smallville x Arrowverse crossover.
“For eight years, Arrow has stood on the shoulders of Smallville. Simply put, there would be no Arrow, and no Arrowverse, without it. So when we first started talking about Crisis on Infinite Earths, our first, second and third priorities were getting Tom to reprise his iconic role as Clark Kent. To say that we’re thrilled would be a Superman-sized understatement.” – EW
In 2017, Welling had spoken to EW in an interview stating that at the end of the 10th and final season of Smallville, Clark Kent finally becomes Superman and is out there doing his thing. We even managed to see Bruce Wayne finally join the story in the comic book adaptation of the 11th season, thus exploring the expanded universe that the characters of Smallville ultimately became a part of. And now, it seems we will be able to revisit them and see what some of those characters have been up to since the show ended a decade ago, although it should be noted that we do not know just how big or small Welling’s role will be, considering there will be multiple Supermen in CoIE throughout its run.
The major crossover event will span across the various CW shows occupying the Arrowverse, starting with Supergirl on December 8th, and Batwoman, The Flash, and Arrow shortly thereafter. Crisis will conclude in January with Legends of Tomorrow.
