Tom Welling In Talks To Return As Superman In A Movie
Tom Welling could be returning to the screen as Superman, this time in a major movie that could feature a massive crossover
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Tom Welling isn’t probably the first name you’d think of when it comes to Superman. But that’s only because there have been some massive-budget films in the last couple of years that have put Henry Cavill more into the forefront when it comes to the Kryptonian red cape. But Welling did play this role for the better part of a decade in what amounts to one of the longest runs the character has ever seen. And now he might be returning to the part. Geekosity is reporting that Welling is in line to reprise the role in The Flash solo movie coming from the DC Extended Universe.
This news about Tom Welling is part of a major rumor that The Flash will feature significant parts of the CWs Arrowverse and that part of it will be running into Superman along the way. It won’t be the first time Welling has reprised the role since Smallville went off the air. He made an appearance in a Batwoman episode when the CW was running one of its major crossovers endeavors that involved the Infinite Earths timeline. But other than that, it’s been few and far between for the actor as the character.
This news of CW and Arrowverse folks like Tom Welling showing up in The Flash points to the DC Extended Universe playing with the idea of the multiverse (or their equivalent) in ways we are also likely to see in Spider-Man: No Way Home. That film is set to bring on other versions of Spider-Man we’ve seen in the past from different studios. Those include Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as well as some of the enemies (and loves) he saw along the way. This would be a similar idea in that Ezra Miller’s Flash is going to sprint his way into alternate dimensions or universes.
And it appears that Tom Welling won’t be the only one Miller’s Barry Allen meets up with in The Flash. Among other Arrowverse folks he’ll speed into could be his superhero doppelganger in Grant Gustin’s version of the character. This would be some Flash on Flash intrigue which would make the whole thing a very cool endeavor. While the Warner Bros. movie version doesn’t overlap with the CWs Arrowverse, it looks like they are making a coordinated effort to bring the two entities together in creative ways.
Tom Welling played Clark Kent/ Superman for 10 seasons on Smallville. In many ways, he helped usher in the current form of comic book television shows we have today. Though it’s not part of the Arrowverse technically, it was Welling’s Superman that seemed to set the stage for that next run of shows. There was clearly a fan appetite for those types of programs and the CW capitalized. Whether we get a massive turnout for The Flash in terms of the CW’s hero universe showing up on the screen, but it’s cool to think about Welling getting a much-deserved shot on the big screen in this role, even if it’s only in a cameo.
