Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Comic Con 2010 - Smallville Panel Recap - July 27, 2010

Smallville took the stage at Comic Con in preparation for its final season which premieres in the fall. They did debut the new trailer for the tenth season. It looks really impressive. It shows Lois finding a box including the super gear. We see familiar faces including Laura Vandervoort, James Marsters, John Glover, and John Schneider. Big reaction from the crowd to John appearing on the trailer. The trailer finished with Clark flying and pushing The Daily Planet's spinning planet back up toward the roof. Here are some of the happenings of the panel. On the panel were showrunners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson along with the cast of Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, and Cassidy Freeman. However, there was another surprise to the panel. John Schneider was brought out to sit in on the panel. First off, this was a very fun panel. Lots of laughs. Some of the news that was announced during the panel was that Erica will be appearing on all 22 episodes this season which is a first for her with the series. Justin will be appearing in 17 episodes and will be doing some directing. Tom is going to be directing again. Darkseid will be the big villain. Cassidy said that she will be returning and joked that her being on this panel was a good sign for her. LOL. Geoff Johns hosted the Smallville panel and said that he would be writing another episode which would be a Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle episode. Expect big things with that episode based on all of the other great episodes that he has done. We will also be seeing some superheroes being brought into the Smallville universe with some being on the first episodes of the season. A couple from the Suicide Squad were mentioned. John's intro on to the panel had him saying "rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated". Great line. He sat in next to Tom and spoke about how much it meant to work with him again. John was not expecting to be as emotional as he ended up being about returning to work with Tom and on the show. He said that he loves Tom and loves working with him. He was so classy during this panel thanking the fans saying the fans were the reason for their success. Later in the panel, a question was asked of the group about a favorite line from the show's run. John spoke up and said that it was in the scene that we would be seeing this season where he said "you could be the greatest hero that the world has ever seen" in speaking to Clark. He also said that he loved the character of Jonathan Kent saying that he wished he was more like that character. A spinoff question was of course asked with Kelly providing the only answer of "that would be great" and then leaving it at that. The next obvious question that we want answered is if there is any chance of Michael Rosenbaum returning? Kelly took that one too saying that "nothing would make us happier than to have Michael back and the door is wide open. It you want him back, let him know". Is there a bucket list of things that the writers want to do before the show ends? Kelly said that they have had a list on the writers wall of things that they've wanted to do for about three years now that they've been adding to. Talk turned to the suit that we saw in the season ten trailer and how it was the traditional suit and not the darker suit that we've been seeing in Smallville. Tom said that this was the first time that he had seen the traditional suit as it had played on the trailer. Kelly added that the dark suit was necessary because Tom was in a darker place in his life and not ready for the traditional suit. He was in the transitional phase last year. She also talked of how the traditional suit that we saw is the same exact suit used in the Superman Returns movie. A question that I as a fan am going to want to know is what about Allison Mack? Will we get a proper send off for her? Kelly says that they don't plan on sending her off and want her to be around. She said that Allison is dedicated to the show and wants to come back. We will be seeing her in some episodes this season. We also got the news that Chloe is about to debut in the comic books in the next couple of months. It will be Action Comics #892. I love that the Chloe character has become so popular that now they are having to add her into the comic books instead of the usual other way around of comic characters coming to the show. Will Clark fly? Brian says that we all know how the comics turn out so that is the answer. So, what about the finale? Kelly said that they are planning on making sure to pay homage to these iconic characters all season and having it culminate in the finale.

All of them were asked the question of what was their favorite moment or episode of the series? Tom said it was when he threw the tractor and John jumped in there with him talking about it. Justin said it was the whole episode of "Roulette". Cassidy's moment was the whole episode of "Checkmate" and getting to do something Alias like with her character. Erica couldn't pick just one moment with there being so many great moments. She said her favorite times was anytime when she got to do something comedic and not take herself so seriously while being dorky. Kelly's was an interesting answer with her saying that she'd pick the 100th episode as her favorite only because the 200th episode hasn't been shot yet. Hmm. She said that it will have moments of the past, present, and future of where they are going in it. Well, I'm excited to see what this episode turns out to be!!

The panel was asked about their funniest moment on set with Kelly saying that it usually revolved around Tom because he was such a prankster on set. Tom told the story of Michael Rosenbaum's last scene joking that he just wouldn't die. They were shooting the scene where Lex is laying in Clark's arms and he wouldn't shut up. LOL. He said that Michael was there talking to the crew saying see you later and we're going to hang out after this is over. He would go from tangents to make everyone laugh to let's hang out and then "action" and would deliver the line of "Clark, you're my brother". Really funny story. John told a story of how Tom was unable to say the name of this plant on set. They finally had to change the script to say "heavy potted plant" because Tom couldn't say the word. John asked if he could say it now and Tom still couldn't do it. There was a really funny moment when Kelly's name card was moved down to where she was now sitting since John had sat in next to Tom. John put his cup up there to replace it. Then, he took that down and placed his ID up there instead saying that's my superhero haircut on the picture. Somebody on the panel said "that's also your address" which got a lot of laughs. John pulled it down and said "I guess I'll be seeing you all". Really funny moment. Interesting moment when Tom was asked a question saying that he was Superman for a generation and if he had ever auditioned or been approached for a Superman film? Tom paused saying that it wasn't an easy answer. He said the answer is yes to one and no to the other. So, let the speculation begin on that. LOL. Really nice moment from the panel when one guy at the Q&A mic started to talk about his daughter's 18th birthday and they cut the mic off on him. Just completely rude. John would not let the moment get away and said that he knew how important that a daughter's 18th birthday can be and to please let the man say whatever it was that he wanted to say. John had the daughter pointed out and she was brought up with the dad. She got Tom's name card autographed for her. John apologized for what happened and the crowd applauded. Classy moment. Really classy.

To close out this recap, I loved what Tom had to say about Christopher Reeve. The panel was asked about their favorite scene on the show and Brian said it was the scene with Tom and Christopher. Tom was asked what it was like to work with him. This is what Tom had to say about it: "I don't think I've even still understood what it was like. He was such an awesome guy and made me feel so comfortable. From an acting point of view, he was able to do so much with what he had to use in those scenes. Obviously, his mobility was impaired and his breathing was impaired but he was there. One story that I don't think anyone knows about is he was only allowed to be there for five or six hours. His nurses or doctors wouldn't let him work any longer. I think he stayed and worked for about ten hours. He wouldn't let them take him away. It was really an out of body experience for me to be there in his prescence. He was a great guy". Kelly thanked the fans at the end of the panel for making everyone's dreams come true. Great, great panel. So much fun to watch.

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