Co-creator Alfred Gough says his animated follow-up to “Smallville” will have to wait until Warner Bros. is finished with James Gunn‘s “Superman.”
“Warners has obviously gone through a lot, and I think the fact that they are in the process of rebooting ‘Superman’ again, kind of unfortunately, I think, keeps our thing off the table for a bit,” Gough told “Smallville” stars Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling on their “Talk Ville” podcast. “Everything comes around in one form or another, I just read the other day that they are rebooting ‘Buffy’ for Hulu.”
Co-created by Gough and Miles Millar, “Smallville” ran for 217 episodes across 10 seasons on the CW. The show followed a teenage Clark Kent (Welling) learning to harness his superpowers for good in the quaint town of Smallville, Kan.
Gough went on to add that another wrinkle in the “Smallville” sequel series could be the “regime change” that happened over at Warner Bros. In 2022, Gunn and Peter Safran were named co-CEOs of DC Studios, a then freshly minted production arm tasked to oversee DC properties at WB.
“That is the thing, I think the problem with most projects in development in any studio and/or any network is regime change,” Gough said.
Gunn’s highly anticipated “Superman,” which is slated for a July 11 release, will serve as the litmus test for how his revamped DC Studios will fare at a time when the box office is plagued with superhero fatigue. The film stars David Corenswet (Clark Kent/Superman), Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), Skyler Gisondo (Jimmy Olsen) and Isabela Merced (Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl).
