Voices of Krypton Interview Season 7 spoilers

Meemalee at TWoP transcribed it so Im going to put it here for those that didnt or couldnt listen to it.

.Miles Millar/Voices of Krypton interview Part 1

Is it something that still has appeal to you doing this show 7 years in?

Absolutely, it just gets more challenging. The thing about Smallville has got better over time. I think last year was our best season yet. I think this season’s going to be – we’ve got a high bar to reach, but we’ll do it as well. It’s a great character-driven show that has matured really well and no one’s more surprised than me. We’re always tarred with that “freak of the week” brush, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna say it anymore. We’ve got a really good balance and I really love the introduction of Supergirl who’s going to be great and Jimmy’s been great last year. We’ve got amazing staff of writers right now in Vancouver. Everyone’s fantastic.

I’ve come to you and I’ve bitched about in the past that one of the things always bothered me to a large degree is that sometimes these major bombshells are dropped and then kinda “dropped”. I mean, they happen on the show and then we don’t address them again - sometimes there’s a lack of sense of continuity, but this year it seems like all of a sudden, especially towards the latter part, you’ve started referencing the episode before, even though the plots might have not been totally connected and I don’t know what changed, but it just felt like you were suddenly taking everything and connecting it much more than you had in a lot of ways

Yeah, absolutely, that’s right. I mean, we made a big effort last year to do that and was very successful. I mean, that why it really clicked

Could you give me do me a favour a look back over season 6 and give me as much as you can depth wise your feelings about its strengths its weaknesses what you want to correct this year?

I thought it our strongest season yet. The Lana-Lex-Clark triangle was something we wanted and couldn’t do for various reasons and that really gave Lana a reason to be in the series and she finally came forward as a real character with something to do. And seeing Lex and Lana together gave the season a completely different fresh take and a danger. It allowed the characters to grow in a way they haven’t been allowed before, so for me that was the strongest element of the show - a huge triangle – those 3 characters are the lynchpins of the series so the fact that they had that sort of dance last season made for great TV and great drama - so that for me is the core element of what made last year so special

What about the Green Arrow thing?

Of course, Justin and “Justice” was fantastic. We loved Justin from the “Aquaman” pilot and he came in and claimed that role and ate it up and had major chemistry with Erica Durance who plays Lois Lane and that story line culminated with the Justice League which was one of our biggest episodes ever. The fact that DC Direct are doing action figures based on our designs for the costumes and those characters is just awesome and a tribute to the power of that episode and the power of that season.

Is there any chance they would do a comic book based on that?

Maybe

I mean, I think that would be great doing it based on Smallville

That’s a really good idea

Give them a call, you have clout

Yeah, right

You know it’s funny the Green Arrow thing to me was the closest this show can ever get to a Superman-Batman dynamic basically and, as a fan, I would have loved to have seen this become a show that was as much about Green Arrow as it was about Clark Kent. Was there any temptation to keep it going beyond the 7 episodes whatever it was that Justin appeared in?

Yeah and certainly he’s going to reappear this season, absolutely, but it’s still Smallville, it’s still Clark’s show. We had a great experience with that. How else could he interconnect with how many [??? bifurcates???] series . Obviously, we talked about spinning him off into his own series which would have been really cool. There are various reasons why that couldn’t happen and various talk about doing Justice as a series and that couldn’t happen either. I think you can see the potential. If you can look at the Justice episode and not see a spin-off, then think yourself nuts but that’s the sort of environment were in.

Were there at least talks of a Justice spin-off?

Absolutely

Why wouldn’t they go for it?

Why wouldn’t they have Aquaman? I don’t know. You’re in an environment where Heroes is the big hit of last season so you’d think you’d go for Aquaman; you think you’d go for one of these stars, but that’s where we are. So we can sit back, scratch our heads and wonder what the **** we’re doing, but that’s just reality.

With Heroes you’d think they’d jump on the opportunity. I don’t understand that maybe it’s because they’re doing the Justice League movie again or something

Even so, these things can co-exist - doesn’t mean one against another. It’s all a bit baffling – there’s an audience out there for these kind of shows and I don’t think their appetites are being met

Not at all. NBC have Heroes - now they have the Bionic Woman coming on. You’d think with Smallville winding down – whether it goes another year or not it still has to have a limited shelf life

We’re very happy to get 7 if we get 8 – fantastic. No more than 8, so that’s it

Tom’s only signed for 8 anyway. He’s certainly not re-signing, we know this!

But guess what, it’s time to end anyway

I’m astounded we got this many episodes, all these stories we’re now [???] through the season and very happy with what’s going on, so it’s just “who knew?” We’re now the longest running comic book series of all time so it’s like great! But it’s a surprise when we get picked up every year - even that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true - who knows?

I guess in this environment you never know

We just hope the audience will tune in for the premiere this season. That’s why we’re bringing Supergirl in to mix it up – keep on hoping people will come and watch

Obviously the rumours are starting even before the show hits its 7th season that you guys are already planning this Supergirl spin-off. Is there any truth to that one whatsoever?

Frankly, I don’t know. Again, it’s so obvious, on this network which claims to be a female network, that it makes perfect sense. CW is extremely excited about Laura and the idea of Supergirl and I think that’s going to be great. We’re completely open for it - it would be fantastic. The character certainly merits her own show and we’ll see what happens. We’ll play it by ear – we’re taking nothing for granted - let’s see what happens - if it evolves organically - great, let’s do it

As far as the whole DC things that we’re been talking about here (those ratings always jump for those) what is it that the DC mythology brings to the show that makes the show pop the way it does. More than it usually pops?

People are intrigued to see the history of Smallville giving these characters a cool contemporary twist and people are intrigued and the fanboys are intrigued to see what we’re gonna do. Whenever we do one of these things it suddenly brings viewers back to the show to see what we’re gonna do with it so, yeah, those shows always pop - whether it be Flash or Aquaman or whatever.

There’s always such great interest - there’s such power that comes with these mythological elements

And we always try to incorporate those elements as much as we can into the show

And would you say that the arrival of Supergirl is one of those significant mythology elements that’s come to the show?

Absolutely - it’s finally a Kryptonian that Clark can talk to and she can share her memories of Krypton with Clark and give him an insight into his parents in a way he hasn’t been able to have before so yeah it’s very important.

Miles Millar/Voices of Krypton Part 2 -

This year in terms of Clark’s journey - what is on your mind in terms of that journey?

This year is a season of reversals

Explain that one please

Things you take for granted are going to be turned up on their heads. So Clark obviously has responsibility for Kara now. She comes into his life and there’s obviously the relationship between Lana and Clark - that takes on a new level as they try and make it work and can a superhero really have a girlfriend (which is the classic superhero dilemma)

So they are going to give it one more shot?

Yeah, but a real shot. They never had a real shot before.

So this will be a more serious longer in a sense exploration of that relationship

Yeah, absolutely. So with his secret - how does a superhero’s girlfriend cope?

Oh, that’s right - she knows the secret. I totally forgot about that.

That brings [???] into the secret and what it’ll mean to them.

That to me opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities

Absolutely and then Kara gets in the middle of that and you know it’s all good.

With Clark and Lex, Al implied/suggested to me that they’re gonna end up working together against a greater threat basically - what can you give me on that?

The return of a familiar face – an old adversary returns

So where do you see the Clark-Lex dynamic going? I mean obviously the thing has to move beyond “you’re no longer invited here, Clark/You’re a bad guy, Lex”. Where do you see it going this year?

Well, it’s hard because we want them in scenes together, but then they don’t have much to say, so it’s forcing them into situations where they have to work together or they have to work together to save someone that they both care about or it’s finding those moments where they can connect, rather than just “You’re my enemy forever now, you’ve taken it one step too far, Lex”

That’s the thing it falls into a repetition if you don’t shake it up somehow

Right, that’s the challenge of the show

And are Clark and Lois gonna get closer? I mean obviously not romance because of Lana and Clark

Yeah, Lois will have a fling with the new editor of the Daily Planet

That Lois tsk tsk tsk

I know – she’s saucy

I gotta tell you something though - Erica Durance in my mind is probably one of the best actresses ever to play this character

Absolutely, she’s fantastic, isn’t she?

Really, if you had a fantasy where you could pair the best Superman and the best Lois, you would take Christopher Reeve, put him in with Erica Durance and I think you’d have a dynamic. A young Christopher Reeve, mind you.

I think Tom’s up there too, you know

He absolutely is but he’ll never be Superman

Right true

I still wish and I think you and I may have talked about this last year – that they had just waited and let Smallville become the movie

Al and I had a really cool take on the movie which would have been, you know - Lex is President and he declares Superman Public Enemy Number 1 and he frames him and so it’s Clark vs the most powerful man in the world. It’s our Lex which is a really, really smart charismatic figure rather than the Gene Hackman buffoon

So if you did a Smallville movie that would be your take on it?

Yeah if we did a Superman movie that would be our take. Basically, you open up - it’s Clark Kent, a reporter who’s going to interview the President of the United States. He walks into the Oval Office. Who’s behind the desk? Lex Luthor. They’re all friends from Smallville and you’d work from that. He discovers that Lex actually has plans to take over the world - oil or whatever reasons and Superman’s going to stop him and Lex frames Superman and declares him Public Enemy number 1. It’s the whole world against Superman but he’s gonna turn the tables and bring down the President.

So will you be there till the end? Yeah

I hate it when creators create a hit show and then decide to leave

The shelf life is very short. Typically - you look at “Gilmour Girls” – whatever you say it went off the rails

Ever see a show called “Picket Fences”? No

“Picket Fences” was an amazing quirky show by David Kelley, week after week amazing. He decided to leave. I have never seen a show self-destruct so quickly as picket fences did. New people came in and they had to change everything and it was like “what is wrong with you”. I mean, from the first episode from the next season on, it just destroyed the show.

Well, that’s classic, that is typical

Last Smallville question - if this is the last year (and we’re all hopeful there’s going to be another year) what’s your feeling of what you’ve accomplished with this show?

I think we took and were able to show a slice of the characters’ history that never really been explored in any great depth and really get a sense of what it takes to be a hero and what it takes to be a villain and how their backgrounds, how their interactions and how events out of their control form these characters who come to be known as an arch villain and come to be known as a superhero. And … the girl in the middle.

And I think that’s been a really interesting creative ground to seed and I think there’s really been evidence in the audience that it’s really evolved and it’s really a characteristic of the show – when it could have been – most shows run out after four seasons, that the truth, but Clark’s or the Hulk’s and everything else – they become monotonous - we talked before about the David Mammon article about Superman – how it’s sort of dull and repetitive and he always saves the day (which he always does) and I think it’s a credit to the writers of the show that we’ve managed to find a way that it’s not necessarily going to be the hero at the end of the day - you don’t know what’s going to happen in every episode of Smallville. I mean inevitably 9 times out of 10, Clark comes in and saves the day - the hero blah blah blah - but there’s still baggage from that experience. It wasn’t a complete win for him that there’s this price that’s paid. For every victory – there’s a price

And this whole thing has gone much farther than you ever thought it could have in the beginning

Absolutely. The first season was a blur in hell, a little hell for us cos we’re right in the thick of things and it exploded, you know - cover of Rolling Stone, cover of EW, TV Guide, everything. It was a hit, a huge hit right out of the gate. You know after 12 episodes it was a huge hit and then it was “ok, well how do you maintain that/” and in season 2 we grew even bigger and there were lots of battles behind the scenes about things like budget and lots of things behind the scenes that were going on. It was very traumatic and difficult and then they changed our nights and we dipped and we wondered if we’d even get to five seasons; then we brought in Lois. Every season we thought “ok well, this is the final one, we really got to change a lot or be cancelled” and then we came back. They changed us to Thursday nights - we went up in viewers.

It’s just been a strange weird journey for us. But I think we’ve met a huge challenge and the show just incredibly got better. And we had our rookie seasons like the Crystal Season was our worst.

Yeah, I think you’re right

We got some fantastic episodes. We got some really bad episodes as well, so it’s like a strange, strange mix.

It’s almost like there has to be a bad episode or two each season

But that’s true of any show. 24 has very few of those. But for us, there are stinkers - at least one or two stinkers, because you can’t make 22 hours of TV and make them all great. You can’t. No show can. It’s the law of averages - you can’t make 22 hours of great TV in terms of this production environment, which is like trains running “ok, next one out, next one out”
Can’t do it. It’s like humanly impossible. In fact, the last season was so good, so consistent – we had like “Subterranean” which is sub par – but it was ridiculous, it was pretty good.

It’s wonderful to have made a show like this I think once you’re done and the show has stopped production it really becomes part of this incredible legacy. it’s not just a show which will go into reruns and people will just forget, by being what it is, it’s gotta be something special the fact that it will live on as part of the Superman legacy

It’s one of those shows that’s touched a lot of people. You forget six years ago it was on the cover of Rolling Stone. It touched a cultural nerve and shows like the OC which flame and die - this show has longevity for a reason because this man is someone who’s beloved that that character’s in the groundswell and this is a part of his life that people will be intrigued by and always will be and kids will go back to the show and I think it has a timeless quality to it and it’s going to be around for a very long time. It’s one of those shows that people will remember and is not going to die any time soon

Absolutely

It’s not like “Lois and Clark” which is so of its time - it’s yuppie

And it wasn’t very good.

Right.

After it’s first season, it went down

We’ve always tried to be good. We’ve never sat back. We’re still striving to be great even though we don’t always reach that point - whereas we take the show very seriously. It’s not like a lark or a cartoon - it’s a very serious show with very serious characters and we want it to matter to people because these characters do. We went to the Comic Con this year - we had this incredible – you feel the fans’ love for the show which is important and we respect that and want them to be happy and Superman’s a big legacy to live up to.

What does Part 3 have in store for us? Stay tuned!

Thanks JP!

Cool. I was really hoping superboy would pop up in smallville some time. We already have impulse. Another member of young justice would have been cool. I wouldn't have minded seening Lobo, Lil' Lobo, or Slobo in it either. It would have been cool.

Thx JP great post 😄