Though the legacy of Smallville eventually continued with the highly enjoyable Season Eleven series of comic books, many dedicated fans of the Superman prequel show are well aware of how several spinoffs nearly came to fruition, or were at least talked about.
Of course, there’s the obvious one that everyone knows about, Aquaman, which actually had a pilot filmed and ultimately wasn’t picked up. Two others which you may or may not have heard of that didn’t gain much traction were that of potential series centered around the burgeoning Justice League and Laura Vandervoort’s Supergirl, but now we’re learning of another that sounds a bit intriguing.
Strangely enough, Justin Hartley, who was originally cast as Aquaman for the ill-fated offshoot and would’ve probably led the JL as the Green Arrow had their own adventures came to be, was the center of discussion for Metropolis, which he briefly touched on while recently appearing on the Inside of You podcast:
“While I was on the show, while I was on Smallville, there were several different spinoff ideas that they had. They wanted to do a spinoff called Metropolis or something like that, I heard whispers of that. It was Lois and Oliver in Metropolis and whatever that was. They were trying to extend the life of the show.”
Unfortunately, Hartley quickly moved onto other subjects and failed to elaborate, but it’s probably safe to assume this would’ve gone down shortly following Smallville season 6. We say that because, at the time, Lois Lane and Oliver Queen had been romantically linked, as the former didn’t get together with Clark Kent until after season 7 – when original showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar finally departed. And had this happened, it may have been doubtful that Lois and Clark would’ve paired up, what with Erica Durance being on another show.
Now, if this iteration of Metropolis had seen the light of day, it’s very doubtful the Arrowverse would’ve ever come into being because, face it, The CW wouldn’t have green lit two shows spotlighting the Emerald Archer in a row. That said, I guess it’s for the best Smallville remained a standalone tale.