Trivia / Smallville

• Acting for Two: "X-Ray," "Visage," "Crusade," "Onyx," "Phantom," "Bizarro," "Persona," "Luthor," "Collateral"^note for six, actually, "Masquerade," "Kent."
• California Doubling: With B.C. standing in for Kansas, this allowed for a Blooper once in a while, such as in the opening establishing shot of Metropolis in “Rogue”, where the TD Bank and Scotiabank logos can be seen on several skyscrapers. ^note  TD does have a U.S. presence in banks and other financial services, but Scotiabank does not, making its logo a dead giveaway for the shot being filmed in Canada.
  • Also happens in the Season 9 episode "Conspiracy," near the end when Chloe is wondering who took her Kryptonite weapons. In the background you can see E&H Hitch Shop, a real-life Vancouver business, as well as a sign showing their 604 telephone number (Vancouver's area code). For added rule of funny, the sign also has the name of an adjacent business with West Coast in its name—rather unlikely for Metropolis.
• The Cast Showoff: Alessandro Juliani and Cassidy Freeman both have musical backgrounds, which is probably why they got to be the ones that sang in "Fortune."
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Allison Mack toyed with the idea of auditioning for Lana Lang before going for Chloe Sullivan. Incidentally, Allison is a green-eyed Caucasian just like traditional Lana, while Kristin Kreuk is part-Chinese with dark eyes.
  • Originally actor Justin Hartley was supposed to play the role of the character Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman. However, he ended up playing the role of the Green Arrow instead and the role of Aquaman went to Alan Ritchson. Hartley played Aquaman in the producers' unsold spin-off pilot, Mercy Reef.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Alfred Gough and Miles Millar acknowledged they took the wrong decisions with Lana Lang. Gough said Lana's romance was a three-season love story that lasted six seasons and Millar said her response, although justified, made her seem cold and unsympathetic.
  • Laura Vandervoort considers that Kara didn't have a good closure in the series and thinks that her character wasn't explored enough. While she is understanding with her limited role given that the series focused on Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, she absolutely detested her Supergirl costume due to considering it too sexualized and has stated she wanted the staff to burn the wardrobe when she was done with her role.
• Creator Breakdown: Michael Rosenbaum has talked on his Inside of You podcast about becoming extremely depressed during contract negotiations with the execs, where they had "made all these promises" they weren't keeping, and would stay in his trailer between takes, to the point that Tom Welling became worried about him.
• Dawson Casting:
  • In Season 1, Clark and his friends are high school freshmen (14-15 years olds). Tom Welling was 10 years older than Clark (although justified, as Kryptonians tend to age faster). Eric Johnson (Whitney Fordman) was 25, Allison Mack and Kristin Kreuk were both 19; and Sam Jones III was just 18.
  • Although it was never specified how old Lex was (possibly in his early 20s), Michael Rosenbaum was just 29.
  • Erica Durance, who was 27 at the time of casting, played a 19/20-year-old Lois Lane.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • John Schneider directed the Season 3 episode "Talisman."
  • Tom Welling directed the episodes "Fragile" (his debut as a behind-the-scenes creator, a role he's actually continued in his post-Smallville career), "Hydro," "Apocalypse," "Injustice," "Absolute Justice, Part 2," and "Patriot."
  • Michael Rosenbaum directed the Season 6 episode "Freak."
  • Allison Mack directed Season 8's "Power" and Season 9's "Warrior."
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Michael Rosenbaum shaved his head every season to play Lex. Lucas Grabeel had to do likewise when he played the young Lex.
  • Charlotte Sullivan, normally blonde, dyed her hair red to play Maxima.
  • John Glover offered to have his long hair shaved as Lionel as long as it was done on camera.
  • Erica Durance had blonde highlights when she started playing Lois to differentiate her from Kristin Kreuk. During the last two seasons, she went back to her natural brunette that Lois Lane is known for.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The producers of Smallville wanted Bruce Wayne to appear. The then-current owner of the Batman film franchise refused. The irony is DC Comics owns both characters and, in the comic books, both Superman and Batman cross over all of the time and are, in fact, best friends. Batman finally appears in the Season 11 comics' second story arc.
  • Stephanie Brown was to appear as Batman's sidekick, Nightwing, but Barbara Gordon was used instead.
• Fake Nationality: Lia Teng is from North Korea, but her actress Françoise Yip is Chinese-Canadian.
• Friday Night Death Slot: The show was moved to this in its second-to-last season, but remained one of The CW's top shows. Its second season in this slot was its last, but that was less due to time slot and more due to factors such as various contracts expiring and a general feeling that it was time to finally end it.
• I Am Not Spock:
  • Allison Mack expressed this sentiment on her blog.
  • Averting Christopher Reeve's intractable marriage to the iconic role was among the reasons Tom Welling had insisted on "no tights, no flights" in his contract. But if the role doesn't stick to you after ten seasons, it's not going to happen.
• One-Hit Wonder: To this day, this is considered the only claim to fame for both Tom Welling (until Lucifer) and Allison Mack (until her sex trafficking scandal).
• The Other Darrin:
  • Morgan Edge, through having plastic surgery.
  • Edward Teague had two different actors between the flashbacks in "Veritas" and his first modern appearance in "Quest."
• Promoted Fanboy: John Schneider revealed that he was already a Superman fan when he learned about the show and auditioned for the role.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Lana's Important Haircut in Season 8 was because Kristin Kreuk had been wanting to cut it for the past three years, so it was written into the storyline.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Remy Zero's "Save Me".
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: While the show was well over before Allison Mack's controversy came out, it effectively killed attempts to work the character of Chloe into the greater Superman mythos.
• Scully Box: Allison Mack sometimes needed one, even with heels.
• Sequel in Another Medium: After the series ended, an eleventh season was published in comic book form, following on from the events of the TV series and covering Clark fully embracing his Superman persona.
• Star-Making Role: For most of the cast, particularly Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, Cassidy Freeman, Serinda Swan, Laura Vandervoort, and John Glover.
• Stunt Casting: The show stunt-cast many people previously involved in the franchise, including Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Terence Stamp (as the voice of Jor-El!) from Superman: The Movie, Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher (as Lois's mother) from Lois & Clark, Helen Slater from Supergirl (as Kara's mother), and so on.
• Underage Casting: Jonathan Kent is stated to have been born in 1954, but John Schneider is actually six years younger, and nearly a decade younger than his on-screen wife Annette O'Toole.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Milo Ventimiglia, Jensen Ackles and Brandon Routh auditioned for the part of Clark Kent before Tom Welling was cast. Ackles would eventually go on to play Jason Teague, whereas Routh would portray the character in Superman Returns.
  • Martin Cummins, Anson Mount and Zachary Levi read for the role of Lex Luthor before the casting of Michael Rosenbaum. Cummins and Mount would later go on to play Dr. Garner and Paul Hayden respectively, while Levi would portray Shazam! in the DC Extended Universe.
  • The writers planned to bring Bruce Wayne into the show at one point as a guest role, but this was shot down because of the then-upcoming Batman film. His role and storyline were apparently converted into Adam Knight instead.
  • A relatively small one for Season 7: The writers originally planned for Lionel's death to be the final scene of an episode, not the opening for what became "Descent"; the following episode would have followed the remainder of the produced episode's plot, presumably. The 2007 Writer's Strike, while not hitting this show too hard, did see it cut from 22 to 20 episodes, and this along with two whole episodes needing to be cut from the plan was the result...arguably for the better, at that.
  • The original plot for the episode "Shimmer" had an invisible villain disrupting a school play before it was changed to an invisible villain stalking and attacking Lex Luthor and his loved ones. The original plot was turned into the Smallville novel See No Evil.
  • Sam Witwer was offered the part of Major Zod (the Big Bad of season 9) but he turned it down, believing it wouldn’t make narrative sense for him to resemble the serial killer Davis Bloome.
  • The creators confirmed years later that they had indeed considered making Chloe their version of Lois Lane, potentially having her change identities or use the name as an alias since they were legally prevented from using Lois in the show. However they were allowed to use her in Season 4, leading her to becoming a main character for the rest of the series.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Shawn Ashmore played Eric Summers in Seasons 1 and 3, but his identical twin brother Aaron plays Henry James "Jimmy" Olsen in later seasons. Aaron returns in the series finale to play James Bartholomew Olsen.
  • The token Asian of the crooks that break into the LuthorCorp tower early in the series shows up in Season 4 as a Chinese national constable on the take. They're played by Byron Mann of Street Fighter fame.
  • Jim Shield, who played Sylvester Pemberton aka The Star-Spangled Kid, previously played Ryan James' abusive step-dad in Season 1's "Stray."
  • Pascale Hutton played Karren Gallagher, the ill-fated mother of the rapid-aging Evan in Season 4's "Ageless" and Raya, the Kryptonian ally of Clark in Season 6's "Zod".
  • Christopher Heyerdahl played Dr. Arthur Walsh in the web series Spin-Off The Chloe Chronicles, and then played Zor-El in the series itself.

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