25 Years of Smallville: Tom and Michael Reunite to Tell the Story Behind the Show
Two decades after they played Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum reunited in New York for an interview with PIX11 to mark 25 years since Smallville premiered on The WB—and the conversation revealed how close the series came to never happening at all.
Welling said the hesitation struck during pilot season, when the script was not being released to actors. His manager at the time took that as a sign the material was either not good or not ready. That changed when pilot director David Nutter invited him to read it, and Welling realized the story was less about a superhero than about a kid in high school figuring out who he is. The show's early "no flights, no tights" rule—the young Clark would wear no capes or costumes—made him comfortable enough to sign on, and Welling believes that single constraint is what let the series run for 10 seasons. He admitted he first feared it would come off as cheesy.
The on-screen rivalry between Clark and Lex Luthor was matched by a friendship off screen. Welling and Rosenbaum said they became friends after meeting at the table read, though they were not inseparable at first, since Rosenbaum often worked 14 to 16 hours a day. During the PIX11 visit, the pair toured the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street, whose lobby doubled as the exterior and entrance of the Daily Planet in Superman: The Movie (1978), and posed for a photo beside its famous rotating globe—a fitting stop for two actors who spent a decade in that world.
They also described how different the experience was before social media. Filming in Vancouver felt like going away to summer camp: a ten-month bubble in which the cast never saw a rating, a review, or a tweet until episodes aired roughly six months after they were shot. Without comments to react to, they said, everyone could just focus on the work—and they are glad it happened that way.
Now, 25 years later, the show keeps finding fans. Rosenbaum recently brought Welling, along with castmates and series creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, onto his podcast Inside of You to mark the anniversary. Both said streaming has introduced Smallville to audiences who were not born when it premiered: all 10 seasons arrived on Netflix in January 2026 and climbed into the platform's global top 10, with the full series landing on Hulu on October 1. Rosenbaum called it "a gift that keeps on giving," and the pair pointed to New York Comic Con as another chance to meet the new generation of fans. Rosenbaum shared a convention memory of a fan who waited in line only to tell him that Gene Hackman, who played Lex Luthor in the 1978 film, was the best version of the character. With viewers who weren't born when it aired now tuning in, the anniversary is as much about what Smallville is becoming as what it was.
