Smallville star Tom Welling talks about his pitch for how Bruce Wayne could have appeared in the Superman prequel series. Before The CW had the Arrowverse, Smallville was the network's flagship superhero series, focusing on Clark Kent's origin story and exploring how he became Superman. Starring Welling as the DC icon, Smallville ran for a decade with over 200 episodes and is in many regards recognized as the series that paved the way for the Arrowverse, which got its start in 2012 when Arrow premiered on The CW. While Clark didn't become the Man of Steel until the series finale, Smallville became the ultimate Superman series and served as a modern interpretation of the hero's backstory.
While Smallville didn't necessarily have a shared universe in the way the Arrowverse did, the Superman prequel drama did dip heavily into the DC catalog by introducing various heroes and villains during Clark's journey. The show even got to the point where it had its own Justice League, consisting of Green Arrow, Impulse, Aquaman, Cyborg, and many more. Even before Clark suited up and took it to the skies, Smallville brought in iconic Superman villains, including Darkseid, Doomsday, and General Zod. However, there were numerous DC players that Warner Bros. prevented Smallville from using, including Batman and Wonder Woman. Even though the creators attempted to introduce some of the other DC icons, especially Bruce and Diana, the heroes were instead alluded to in later seasons.
At this year's New York Comic Con, Welling and several Smallville cast members were present for the event, participating in panels to reflect upon the series. During the Smallville reunion panel, Welling (via TV Insider) opened up about his personal pitch for how the show could have introduced Bruce without the famous Gotham City billionaire donning the Batman costume. While it would likely only been for a single episode, Welling described his pitch as follows:
I thought it would be cool for Clark to come into the Talon and Lex is sitting with somebody, who gets up and leaves, and Clark looks at Lana, ‘who’s that? Lex looks really upset.’” And the other person is Bruce Wayne.
How DC TV Still Struggles With Film Restrictions
Back when Smallville was on the air, the show had to face tougher restrictions from Warner Bros. than the Arrowverse does currently. While The Flash is one of The CW's most successful DC TV shows, during the Smallville days, they couldn't even refer to Bart Allen as Flash and were only allowed to use the Impulse codename. However, present DC TV shows still face their own set of limitations regarding which characters they can or can't use on the small screen. Despite having introduced several Suicide Squad members during Arrow season 2, once David Ayer's DCEU film was greenlit, The CW drama had to quickly scrap any plans for the team and even kill off various characters, including Deadshot.
When it comes to Warner Bros.' DC restrictions on the TV shows, it's always going to be a curious case why there can be multiple versions of Flash in live-action at the same time, but not Batman, Wonder Woman, or Aquaman. Even though Smallville was successful without any Bruce appearances, it would have been fun to see a young version of the Gotham vigilante meet Clark before he became Superman. Ironically, Warner Bros.'s preference in only allowing Batman to be used in the movies is what made Smallville possible, as the concept for the canceled Batman prequel series from 1999 led to the creation of Welling's show. If Smallville had been able to get Bruce even for an episode, Welling's idea would have been a fun way for the World's Finest to meet up before donning the suits and saving the world together.
Source: Tom Welling (via TV Insider)