Posted in: CW, TV | Tagged: Al Gough, Erica Durance, michael rosenbaum, Miles Millar, smallville, the cw, tom welling, WB
Smallville Creators Considered Allison Mack's Chloe Becoming Lois Lane
Smallville creators Miles Millar & Al Gough considered having Allison Mack's Chloe eventually become Lois Lane, confirming the fan theory.
Article Summary
- Smallville could have had Chloe Sullivan evolve into Lois Lane.
- Miles Millar and Al Gough explored alternate paths for iconic characters.
- The battle to include Lois Lane ended with her becoming a series regular.
- The duo were guests on Tom Welling & Michael Rosenbaum's Talk Ville podcast.
The WB's Smallville represented a watershed moment for the Man of Steel in that until the series finale, the show's creators did everything they could to refrain from making Tom Welling's Kal-El/Clark Kent into Superman. It also introduced the idea on TV that Clark and Superman's mortal enemy Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), will develop a friendship before the inevitable falling out as the hero works his way up into adulthood to develop into the superhero he'll become. In the first three seasons, one major piece was missing, Lois Lane, the Daily Planet reporter who would fall in love with Superman and eventually fall in love with both sides of his identity. Fans theorized that the original series character Chloe Sullivan, played by Allison Mack, was to be that proto-Lois that Clark fell in love with but ended up being his best friend since he was involved with Kristin Kreuk's Lana Lane before meeting Lois. Creators Miles Millar and Al Gough confirmed on the TalkVille podcast that prior to Erica Durance's casting, the possibility existed.
Smallville: How an Alternate Lois Lane Was Discussed
"We did talk about that, that maybe [Chloe] is the proto-Lois and that later on she had to change her identity or something like that, and she becomes Lois Lane," Millar said. Gough added, "The issue, again, was we wanted to get Lois Lane, and they wouldn't give her to us. And then when she came in in Season 4, there was this huge thing about, 'you can have her for two episodes,' and then, 'you can have her for three,' and then, 'you can have her for half the season,' and [then-Warner Bros. Television president] Peter Roth, to his credit, was like, 'fuck it. She's in the show now, and she's just not leaving.'"
While normally, the casting of Durance might have doomed Kreuk's presence on the series, Lana did stick around until the season eight episode "Requiem." Clark and Lois would develop a deeper relationship until the 10th and final season in 2017, when Clark graduated from being the Blur and finally embraced his destiny as Superman in the series finale "Finale." The cast in Welling, Rosenbaum, Durance, Kreuk, and John Glover (Lionel Luthor) have reunited in panels with Welling and Rosenbaum teasing an animated project in 2021. Welling and Durance made cameos in The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths opposite Supergirl's Lex Luthor, played by Jon Cryer. Durance played Alura Zor-El in Supergirl (not in the same universe, so that's okay). You can check out more on Smallville; you can check out the video below.