“We were still very privileged to have had that moment where we were actually free to do whatever we wanted.”
Before James Gunn and Peter Safran decided to focus on a young Clark Kent as part of their overhaul of DC Studios, we had “Smallville.”
Created by Al Gough and Miles Millar, the young Superman drama starring Tom Welling premiered in 2001 and ran for 10 seasons. Now, Gough and Millar are the team behind Netflix’s massive hit “Wednesday,” another series taking a fresh look at a beloved fixture of pop culture. In a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter about the show, they touched on their time working on “Smallville.”
When asked if they would ever consider revisiting or rebooting the series, the duo was in agreement: No.
“I think we told that story, and they’re always refreshing Superman,” Gough said. “I just read last night that James Gunn’s writing a new younger Superman movie, and I’m like, ‘OK.’ I feel like we were very, very fortunate to do the show when we did it because we got to make the show we wanted to make, and frankly, there was no committee sitting over us telling us what we could or couldn’t do. I mean, we had Warner’s features, who wouldn’t give us certain characters that we wanted, but we got to make the show we wanted to make which we wouldn’t be allowed to make that show today.”
Millar pointed out that, considering how far from the established Superman canon “Smallville” veered, “we categorically would not be allowed to make that show and make those changes today, which is a real tragedy because I think what’s amazing if you look at the history of comics and these characters, is they’re always evolving.
“We were still very privileged to have had that moment where we were actually free to do whatever we wanted,” Millar added, “and it was amazing and very liberating.”
And though they laughingly said they have no advice for Gunn as he embarks on his own Clark Kent series, they did tease another project they’ve long contemplated.
“We tried for a long time to get a young Miss Marple, and maybe that influenced us with the whodunnit element [in ‘Wednesday’], but it’s certainly something that was intriguing as a character who you always see,” Millar said. “I think that was something, to see how she evolved into sort of the nosy old lady in Agatha Christie was something we talked about for a while.”
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