Smallville almost had a wildly different ending! Tom Welling reveals how the series finale changed during production, and how the suit changed along with it.
Smallville has one of the most iconic endings of any series in history. Almost every DC fan has the image of Tom Welling ripping open his dress shirt to reveal the Superman suit beneath seared into their brain. However, it appears that the finale was completely different than what fans ended up seeing on the small screen, and was only changed due to a different show wrapping around the same time as the iconic superhero saga.
“[In] one of the final [scenes,] Clark opens his shirt and finally leaps off the building,” Welling explained to Josh Wilding in a recent interview. “That was written [in] a completely different way. They had written where Clark sees the suit, then cut to him, pulling it on and putting the boots on.”
“Do you guys remember Kiefer Sutherland’s 24? That show just ended, and one of the things they did in that show, it’s a satellite image from space, and he’s talking to [the] satellite imaging, knowing that Chloe, who he works with, is watching, and he’s saying goodbye. He’s saying, ‘I can’t stay, but I gotta go’ And I remember the takeaway from that to me was here’s a guy who’s gonna go out there, is gonna fight the good fight.”
“We can’t go with him, but it allows our imagination to believe he’s still out there. I took that and when we were trying to figure it out in the series, I referenced that the idea that this character is gonna go out there, he’s gonna be out there. We can’t go with it. And that’s how that all came about.”
Despite being lost to the annals of history in modern day television discourse, 24 was a juggernaut at its time, lasting a staggering nine seasons and winning multiple awards even deep into its run. It makes sense that Tom Welling would want to take inspiration from such a prolific show when it comes to handling an ending to a series like Smallville. However, it seems scrapped plans also come with scraps from a Superman suit!
Smallville’s Superman Suit Surprise
Tom Welling’s description of the original finale for Smallville may leave fans hopeful that a full Superman suit for the actor exists somewhere in the backlots of the CW. After all, if the ending originally showed him putting on his boots, there must be more than just the emblem seen in the final product. Yet according to Welling, due to the new direction of the show’s final moments, not much more of the costume was made for him to wear.
“There was a bit of a discussion and limitation on what shots we were going to use, it was me, and Greg Beeman, who directed the episode. But the idea was I was going to force them on a crane shot to come into gear. After that, the show was over, and because it was a crane shot, and no, I wouldn’t allow them to shoot any other angles of it, because that’s what I wanted that and then to go on.”
“So the wardrobe department went, ‘So we’re only going to see this? Okay.’ So they made me a crop top with no sleeves. They didn’t want to pay for the whole suit, and I didn’t mind, I didn’t want to wear a suit! [laughs] So when I go like this [mimics the shirt rip going further,] if I’ve gone any further, you’d have see my belly button.”
Given how strapped for cash network TV shows typically are, especially on the CW back in the late 2000s, corners are expected to be cut when it comes to things like a full Superman suit. Given how Bruce Wayne’s costume ended up in Gotham, Tom Welling was seemingly lucky he even got the logo in Smallville! Though with an animated revival potentially on the way, it’s possible that scrapped suit eventually becomes a reality.
The Smallville animated revival is currently in talks, and there’s no word on when the series could release. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the DC Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
