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FEBRUARY 11, 2011 07:45 PM PST
Smallville Exclusive! Michael Rosenbaum Back for Series Finale: 'I'm Doing It For the Fans'
BY MATT WEBB MITOVICH AND MICHAEL AUSIELLO



The small-screen Superman mythos just breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
After nearly a year of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation, Michael Rosenbaum has inked a deal to reprise his role as Smallville‘s Lex Luthor in the two-hour season finale airing May 13, TVLine has learned.
“I’m delighted to return for the series finale,” Rosenbaum tells TVLine exclusively. “I’m simply doing it for all of the fans out there who made Smallville the great success it is. I appreciate all of their passion, their relentlessness, and even their threats. Ha ha.”
The actor continues, “I can’t wait to hug the old crew back in Vancouver one last time and see all of my old friends once again. Oh, and for Lex to become the bad-ass he’s destined to be.”
Executive producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson say of Rosenbaum’s encore, “It feels like the stars are aligning, literally. We couldn’t be more excited. And as far as the way he returns… there’ll be no doubt about how Lex becomes the great rival in Clark Kent’s life. He is the villain of the story.”
Smallville Final Season Preview: Waiting for Superman
Rosenbaum’s return was considered by many to be the missing piece of the show’s 10th final run, which has welcomed back alums such as John Schneider and Annette O’Toole (as Jonathan and Martha Kent) and John Glover (Lionel Luthor), and later this season Laura Vandervoort (Kara/Supergirl) and Callum Blue (Zod).
Smallville Scoop: Supergirl Returns!
But having Lex back in the flesh — given the series’ wrap-up and a season-long storyline strongly hinting at the supervillain’s return — seemed almost imperative. At the time that Smallville‘s final season was announced, series star/exec producer Tom Welling expressed that he would “definitely” like to have Rosenbaum back, saying, “With Clark propelled into being Superman, how do you do it without a Lex Luthor? That just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Indeed.
Rosenbaum last appeared on Smallville in May 2008, for the Season 7 finale. Prior to his encore as Lex, he next can be seen in a recurring role on the Fox comedy Breaking In, which premieres April 6.

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Originally posted by ~JP~
The return of Rosenbaum as Lex.

From TVLine

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Originally posted by TheMagicPillow
God i've been watching it for 10 years now and i can't believe its over. I'm really depressed right now lol

Amazing series finale.

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Originally posted by Mindship
And so it ends...

All in all, while I enjoyed it, I found it somewhat disappointing. I thought that story elements were more kind of thrown together than really woven; I thought some of the writing/dialogue was a bit cliche or hokey; and given the great threat Darkseid was supposed to be, I felt we got the short end of the stick (visually) in how Clark dealt with him and Apokolyps.

And while I understood the reason for not really, fully ever showing Clark in his Roth suit close up, it would've been nice, once.

Plus, while it began to hit me that Welling really bears a good, solid resemblance to Superman (now that he's in his 30s and not his 20s like Roth)...I'm sorry to say, I never thought he was all that great of an actor, especially in his voice. It just never sounded Supermanish.

I did think Durance did a good job though: best eyes-welling-with-tears since Kreuk. And Rosenbaum...one of the best Lex's ever, IMO.

And my prediction (posted in a thread somewhere during the Doomsday season) regarding the last shot we'd see of Clark was fulfilled: him running toward the camera, pulling open his shirt to reveal, well, you know.

Overall, though at times the series was formulaic and soap-opera-ish, very often the writing/plot and characterization were very good. "Smallville" is going to be a tough act to follow for the next Superman series (and you know there will be one eventually).