Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor in Smallville, is opening up about the idea he has for a sequel series in an animated form.
In a new interview, Rosenbaum revealed he and Tom Welling were developing an animated series with the original cast and creators of the show that originated in 2001 on the now-defunct WB network.
“All I could share is that it’s a great idea. We have Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar], the creators of Smallville, backing us up,” Rosenbaum said in an interview with Screen Rant. “When it’s the right time, we’d like to go and do this: pitch to Warner Bros. It has to be the right time, and right now is not the right time.”
He continued, “We had the strike, we had a change of executives at DC — one being one of my best friends in the world, James Gunn. When the time’s right, I think it’s something that’s a no-brainer unless they have other ideas. We’d like to do it — the whole cast would like to do it.”
Rosenbaum noted that he has “a concept of what the show is” and said the whole cast of Smallville “would voice their own character from the show.”
Smallville ran for a total of 10 seasons — five on The WB and another five on The CW. The series starred Welling as Clark Kent, Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang, and Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor. Other cast members included Eric Johnson, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, John Glover, Jensen Ackles, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, and Callum Blue, among many others.
As the revamped DC Universe takes shape under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s leadership, it was decided to end the Superman & Lois television series after four seasons. The decision was made to not compete with the live-action film Gunn is working on with David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, which is scheduled to open in theaters on July 11, 2025.