For many of us, there’s that one actor who’s defined Superman in our own mind. Whether it be George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Henry Cavill or one of the many others to have taken on the iconic role, odds are that there’s one you look upon rather favorably. Personally, it’s hard for me to choose just one, but the work that Tom Welling and company put into Smallville allowed for the show to become my favorite live-action take on the character.
That being said, there are legions of others who’d like to see Welling come back for more, but let’s be honest, any actor is going to want to try new things after playing the same character for ten seasons – even if it’s the Man of Steel. Thus, his return to the DC TV family came as a bit of a surprise in that he chose to go with Lucifer as opposed to any of The CW shows featuring costumed heroes.
In fact, in a recent chat with Entertainment Weekly, Welling confessed to wanting to do something different in so many words:
“I definitely didn’t want to play Clark Kent again. The great thing about Clark is he didn’t know who he was and he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with what he had and his abilities. This character very much knows what he’s capable of and knows what he wants to do and knows how to do it, so as much fun as that is to play, it wasn’t necessarily because of Clark that I chose this character. It was so many more factors than just, ‘I don’t want play Clark again,’ but I’d be lying if I was saying that I do not enjoy playing something very different for sure.”
In his new role of Marcus Pierce, Welling will be portraying a charismatic police lieutenant who’ll serve as a possible love interest for Chloe Decker, something Lucifer himself will be none too pleased about. Still, we have to wonder how literally we’re to interpret his saying he “didn’t want to play Clark Kent again.” On the one hand, it sounds like he meant a character with those personality traits, but on the other, he’s shot down the idea of playing Superman over on Supergirl, a role that has since been filled by Tyler Hoechlin.
Lucifer returns for its third season on Monday, October 2 on Fox.