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Originally posted by Mairuzu
my lana

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Originally posted by Kal875
"NU"?

Kon-El:


I think it would be cool to have Brandon Routh play him, or that guy from Lois & Clark, who now does Ripleys Believe it or Not.

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What's Next for Clark, Lana and Lex? Will the Green Arrow Return? What is Chloe's Power? Where the Heck is Jimmy Olsen? Smallville Writers and Executive Producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer Have the Answers!


Smallville has been white hot in season six, introducing new characters (Martian Manhunter, Oliver Queen and his alter-ego, the Green Arrow), a new super-team (the Justice League) and new romances that have been sexy (Lois and Oliver) and sweet (Chloe and Jimmy). Popular superheroes from the past (Aquaman, Cyborg, the Flash) have returned, the Earth has been invaded by fearsome creatures from the Phantom Zone, Chloe has been revealed to be a meteor freak, Clark has begun to deal with the responsibilities that come with having great power and Lex has ramped up his sinister secret experiments, many involving super-beings.

But the most dramatic of Smallville's many sizzling storylines the past few months has been the twisted tale of Lex and Lana, now husband and wife. The grievously insecure and tortured Lex, now a genuine madman, tricked Lana into believing she was pregnant with his child -- by substituting hormones for her pre-natal vitamins and faking her ultrasound test -- to ensure that she would marry him. His fears weren't entirely groundless: Even though she thought she was pregnant, Lana wanted to call off the wedding after realizing she loved Clark, but Lionel forced her to marry his son. Lana later learned that her pregnancy wasn't real and that Lex had played her. She has since become a dark, angry young woman with revenge on her mind.

There are only four shows left this season, including this week's emotionally charged episode Nemesis, in which former friends turned bitter enemies Lex and Clark are forced to deal with their relationship while Lana deals with her husband's unforgivable deceit. Veteran Smallville writers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer spoke with me about the surprises that have rocked season six and the shocks in store in the episodes to come. Swimmer says it's all building up to Clark confronting "the greatest foe he's ever had to fight" in the season finale.

An edited transcript of my interview with them begins below -- and there will be much more tomorrow!


Me: Smallville has changed so much this season. The mythology has expanded in many different directions. What was your overall strategy going into it?

Darren Swimmer: The fact that the characters are now adults and they're not tied to being high school kids with high school problems gave us a whole new universe to work with. They've matured a little bit and they can now have adult problems.

Todd Slavkin: In the past Superman folklore we never got to see Clark Kent evolve as he entered adulthood. He just went to the Fortress of Solitude after Smallville. This is uncharted territory. It gives the writers a tremendous number of possibilities to work with.

Me: People are still talking about this show and engaging in heated debates about it online. That's a real accomplishment for a serialized show in its sixth year.

DS: My own personal idea of why this season has worked so well is that Lex Luthor really had an arc. Lex has been transformed more in this season than any other.

Me: In what way would you say that Lex has changed?

TS: In his relationship with Lana Lang. Lana also had a really great season. Nemesis is one of the best shows ever for her character.

DS: I think another reason for our success this season was the addition of the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen. It gave the show an interesting humanistic approach because Clark can now compare himself to a human being [Oliver] that is also a superhero [the Arrow]. The addition of the Green Arrow really helped humanize Clark.

Me: I agree. Oliver and the Arrow really opened up the story. But then the Arrow left. Where does that leave Clark at this point? He's become more aware of himself and his place in the world and what he should be doing but he's not quite there yet.

TS: He can't be there. Once he's there the series turns into Superman, not Smallville. Once he fully dons the Superman mantle, so to speak, it's no longer our show.

Me: So what's next for him?

DS: At the end of the season he's going to fight the greatest foe he's ever had to fight. That will really propel us into season seven. So we're kind of gearing up.

Me: Is the "greatest foe" a character we've seen before or is it someone new?

DS: It's something exciting and thrilling that the fans will love. I don't want to give too much away.

TS: Let’s just say that while parts of the season finale are going to be fun, it's actually a very heavy, serious, action-y episode.

Me: Have we seen the last of the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen?


DS: I hope not, Ed. Unfortunately, or fortunately because he's such a good actor, Justin Hartley is doing a pilot, and good for him because he's such a good actor. If his show goes to series, unfortunately we lose out. If it doesn't, I think [Smallville creators] Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar] will definitely be up for bringing him back because he's always going to play a part [in the story]. You can see even when he's not on the show his name comes up a lot. He's almost a guidance counselor for Clark.

TS: But don't worry, because Al and Miles already have some ideas for next season that we can't get into, but it's really great stuff.

DS: Yeah, new characters next year.

Me: New characters that will keep Clark on the path that Oliver put him on?

DS: Yes, like the Green Arrow this year, but other people and surprises.

Me: What happened to Jimmy Olsen? He seems to have disappeared. Was that the writers' decision?

DS: No, not at all. Aaron Ashmore [the actor who plays Jimmy] is doing a movie.

TS: Aaron's been great. We love working with him as an actor and as a character.

DS: He's hysterically funny. He has a great sense of comedy with Allison Mack [Chloe].

Me: Will we see Jimmy again?

DS: Absolutely. He's going to be in [the May 3 episode].

TS: It's kind of a Jimmy episode.

DS: We're very excited about that. It's titled Noir.

TS: It's shot in black and white. Not all of it, just in parts.

DS: It's gorgeous. It's unlike anything we've ever done before.

Me: There are only three episodes left after Nemesis, so I guess things are going to accelerate really fast.

DS: Nemesis is great in setting up what is to follow. With Wes Keenan you'll really see a window into the future.

Who is Wes Keenan, you ask? You'll have to watch Nemesis on Thursday for the answer. And you'll have to return to this space tomorrow to read what Todd and Darren have to say about the new, "depraved" Lex Luthor; the return of the Green Arrow; the controversy raging online about the relationship between Clark and Lana, and the fate of Chloe Sullivan, meteor-freak!

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Part Two
Here it is: The conclusion to my interview with veteran Smallville writers and executive producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer. (To read Part One, scroll down.)

Me: You've really veered into some heavy psychodrama with Lex and Lana in the second half of season six, especially when Lex gave her hormones to make her believe she was pregnant.

Todd Slavkin: That was so wonderfully depraved for Lex's character. We've always seen his dark side, but that depravity …

Darren Swimmer: He's gone into the shadowy darkness …

TS: … of a psychopath.

Me: So in your minds the point where Lex totally turned the corner was the baby story and the fact that he was faking his own bride's pregnancy?

DS: Yeah, because he's so insecure he couldn't believe she would marry him otherwise. I always think, last year in Aqua, when Lex had Aquaman on that table and wasn't giving him any water, that was sort of like a new level of direct evil for him. This year it's almost to a level of depravity, because he's doing this with the woman he loves more than anything in the world. Lex truly does love Lana. It's the bizarre expression of love and the insecurities wrapped up in it that make his depravity really enticing. You know he's screwed up because of his father. You know where this came from. The show has done a wonderful job in showing what turned Lex dark in terms of his father. We always kind of feel sorry for him in the back of our minds.

TS: Michael Rosenbaum always carries that sense of a tortured soul that makes his character more likeable.

Me: You touch on that in Nemesis when Clark says that for a brief instant he saw something in Lex he hadn't seen in years: His friend.

DS: The notion of Lex having no friendship to compare his own relationship to Clark to is really powerful. Clark's truly the only friend he's ever had. At the end of the show Clark says to his mother, "Did I cause him to be dark? My rejection of him?" There are some really great, deep issues that they both have to face.

Me: It's interesting that you had Lex become totally dark in the pregnancy story, yet in Nemesis there are moments in which you remind us that he used to be a nice guy.

DS: The greatest villains in the world are the ones that we like. We will continue to illuminate Lex's humanity, like you have to do with any great villain. If he's just a mustache-twirling bad guy it's not interesting.

Me: It seems to me that you have taken Lana to a point where there is no going back. It's almost like she is evolving into a new character. Is that an accurate observation?

TS: Yeah. When you get backed into a corner the claws come out.

DS: Lana has grown a lot. One way to make someone grow is through hardship. She's just been through the toughest few weeks of her life.

Me: But where does she go from here? Is she going to remain this harder, darker, more suspicious person?


DS: There are some great surprises around the corner as this season comes to a close.

TS: Nemesis is kind of fun because there are a lot of people who hate Lana. I'm talking about the online fans. Those who hate her will still hate her. Those who like her are going to love her because she's really standing up.

Me: From what I see online, your fans seem to be pretty much on board with almost all of the superhero action stories on the show. But they get really heated when it comes to the romance. There's a real split. They love Lana and Clark together, or they want Clark with Lois. Some want Clark with Chloe. Some hate Lana. Others love her.

TS: It shows they care. The minute all of that buzz stops there's a problem, because even though they hate [certain characters] being together they're still watching them. It's part of what makes serialized television work.

DS: There will always be a part of our audience that says, 'When is Superman going to bend steel? Why isn't he using his powers?' And there are those who will yearn for the heartache and the heartbreak of Clark and Lana, the romance that can never come to fruition.

TS: Since we've been on the show it's always been like this.

Me: Chloe has developed into one of the most interesting characters because she's central to the show but she isn't part of the classic Superman story.

DS: It's great with Chloe, because we have free reign with her and can take her in any direction we want.

TS: Free reign meaning free from DC Comics mythology.

Me: You have established that she's one of the meteor freaks.

DS: This was an idea we had been kicking around for a while, but we never quite knew how to do it. This season we came up with a really cool way to do it. You'll see that. It will be paid off at the end of the year.

Me: So we're going to learn more about Chloe before the season ends?

TS: Yeah. It's not going to be "she's a meteor freak" and then you never hear about it again.

Me: What about the other heroes you've brought back this year? The Justice League?

DS: That was such a fun episode. It was great to see those kids together. Aquaman, Cyborg, the Flash. There was that fun of young guys getting together all of like minds that we had never seen on the show. I'm sure that will be something to explore more in the future.

Me: You said when Clark becomes Superman it's no longer your show.

TS: When he wears the Clark Kent glasses and has two personalities and all that. That's what we mean, because he already is sort of Superman.

DS: We mean when he literally puts on that cape and the tights and flies in the air hovering over Metropolis looking for crime, that's not Smallville anymore.

Me: That would be a great image for the last episode of the series -- whenever that may be.

DS: Hopefully a long, long time from now.

Me: That's an interesting challenge for you guys. There's this wall out there in front of you that you can't hit, but you have to keep accelerating your story toward it. And Clark isn't getting any younger. How do you deal with that?

DS: This is part of the story that isn't in the comics. We can use what his struggles are in this period of his life to our advantage.

TS: It's a right of passage show. In anyone's rite of passage there are so many events that happen that influence what that person will become. We all get in the conference room and there is a lot of debate and discussion on how to keep the show fresh and interesting. We have a lot more stories to tell.

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Nemesis is kind of fun because there are a lot of people who hate Lana. I'm talking about the online fans. Those who hate her will still hate her. Those who like her are going to love her because she's really standing up.