By Richard Keller,Tv Squad
July 29,2008
In one of the rowdiest panels of the Con, the stars and writers of the CW's Smallville took to the stage on the last day of the convention. Moderated by Joseph Loeb, the panel featured Allison Mack (Chloe), Justin Hartley (Green Arrow), new stars Sam Witwer (Doomsday), Cassiday Freeman (Tess), and showrunners Kelly Souders, Brian Peterson, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer. It was a panel full of spoilers, fan appreciation, and a good amount of name plaque requests.
Some of what is upcoming during season 8 can be found after the jump.
First off, they will be holding to the "No Tights" part of the "No Tights. No Flights" rule established at the beginning of the series, which implies that Clark may start flying during the 8th season. Showrunner Darren Swimmer said that Clark was going to start thinking about his destiny in the world and, to that end, would begin working on a secret identity. Showrunner Kelly Souders added that Clark would be using the Daily Planet to active search out those people who needed his help.
Sam Witwer will portray the character Justin Bloom. He will be an extremely nice paramedic who starts having blackouts with dire consequences. Turns out, those blackouts are connected to the appearance of the villain Doomsday. Cassiday Freeman will play Tess, the new girl at Lexcorp now that Luthor is gone. Tess will be Miss Mystery -- no one will know who she is or why she was picked to run the company.
Allison Mack said her character would be struggling with the events of last season at the beginning of this one. This includes tidying up some dangling strings with Jimmy Olsen and breaking strings with Clark to be more independent. There is also a chance that Chloe will be using her powers in future episodes. Mack enjoys the fact that she is the ultimate sidekick, the Gal Friday, to Clark.
Now that Just Hartley will be a regular cast member this season there will be more exploration of his Green Arrow and Oliver Queen characters. Hartley enjoys playing both Queen and Arrow and likes being the lone vigilante and the leader of the Smallville version of the Justice League.
Other items discussed during the panel:
* During the audience Q&A someone asked Allison how it was kissing star Tom Welling. Her response: "What do you think?"
* While not returning this season, the door is always open for Michael Rosenbaum and Sam Jones III to return as Lex Luthor and Pete Ross.
* The season premiere will feature an appearance by the Justice League. Later in the season DC Comics scribe Geoff Johns will be writing an episode that will introduce the Legion of Super-Heroes. According to Darren Swimmer there will be much more use of DC characters and mythology this season.
* Asked about the difference between Luthor and new villain Doomsday, Darren stated Lex was smart, but couldn't kill Clark.
* Allison may direct an episode of Smallville this season. Actually, after shaking hands with showrunner Todd Slavkin during the panel, it may be a done deal.
* The panel was asked what shows they would like to crossover with. The natural response from all was Supernatural. Across the panel: Kelly Souders said Heroes; Cassiday suggested either American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance; Sam suggested the original Knight Rider because Doomsday could kick Michael Knight's butt; Justin said The West Wing since he could say to the President,"Don' worry, Prez. We got this."; Darren mentioned The Office.
* For some reason many in the audience were asking for the panel members' name plaques. Eventually, this became a running joke, with Sam asking Tom for his placard.
* The last question of the session came from someone dressed as Batman. He asked when they were going to bring him onto Smallville, then proceeded to ask for Cassiday's name card.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
SDCC 2008:Smallville Panel
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