While superhero movies and shows are the biggest TV and movie events of the year now, the genre was still in its infancy in 2001.
Despite the successes of films like Tim Burton’s Batman or the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, the genre didn’t really get off the ground until 2002’s Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire and then the launch of the MCU with Iron Man.
Before that super revival, there was a small show called Smallville with Tom Welling playing the role of Clark Kent as a teenager. Fans can now revisit the series in a new context as Welling and Michael Rosenbaum (who played Lex Luthor) are teaming up to produce a podcast called Rewatch.
Podcasts such as Office Ladies and Talking Sopranos have been hugely popular. They allow fans to rewatch their favorite shows and listen to podcasts about them.
Talk Ville is a partnership between Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling that should revive interest in the proto-Superman series. Cumulus Media will release the first episode of Talk Ville on July 13. New episodes will be released on Wednesdays, giving fans a week to catch up before tuning in. It will be available on all major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
While it has been quite a while since Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum were on-screen as the everlasting nemesis pair of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor respectively, they have remained close friends since 2011.
We’ve seen many DC superhero shows fill in the gap left by Smallville. Although Smallville aired originally on The WB, it moved to The CW in 2012. Arrow was introduced by The CW in 2012. This series launched the Arrowverse, an interconnected network of DC series. Although Arrow is gone, several series are still going strong such as The Flash and Superman & Lois.
Other CW shows were also affected by the Warner Discovery merger. This was likely to the dismay of many fans. Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow were the latest victims.
