“Smallville” star Tom Welling has never been shy about which storylines bugged the crap out of him during the show’s impressive 10-season run; just read about one of the episodes he nearly refused to film.
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At the 2025 Fan Expo in New Orleans, Welling sat down along with some of his former costars to chat about everything and anything “Smallville.” Hilariously, he didn’t pull any punches when it came to Clark Kent having to dress in black and go by names like “The Red Blue Blur,” the latter of which he absolutely hated. Here’s what he had to say:
“I’ll tell you my least favorite was the red blue blur stuff … It was this stupid thing where Clark had this alter ego where he dressed in black and he was [kind] of like Batman. And then as much I hated it and Clark really didn’t like it, I had to do scenes with Lois who kept saying how great the red blue blur is … it was just like: ‘What are we doing?'”
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While Kristen Kreuk had left “Smallville” by the time this arc arrived, during the panel she summarized that this was a “pre-Superman Superman” storyline for Clark, which … honestly is a perfect way of putting it, and helps illustrate why the whole “red blue blur” stuff often fell flat.
Before Tom Welling could be Superman, he had to be the red blue blur
“Smallville” was about Clark Kent growing up to become Superman. So, throughout the show’s 10-season run, viewers rightfully never expected to see him fight crime in his traditional blue, red, and yellow getup. This was fine during the show’s first half; whenever Clark did perform a heroic deed, he was usually wearing something like an everyday red jacket with a blue shirt underneath. A simple enough homage that plainly spells out to viewers: “He’s not Superman yet.”
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However, the latter half of the series saw some … interesting fashion choices. During the last three or so seasons, when Clark has developed a solid grasp of his powers, there is this awkward feeling that the show is dragging its feet. As viewers, we know Clark should be ready by now to be Superman, but the show’s writers clearly can’t pull the trigger yet. So, instead of fully committing to him being the Man of Steel, Clark instead becomes a vigilante garbed in a black trench coat or a crimson leather jacket boasting the iconic ‘S’ emblem. These out of place costumes and personas like the “red blue blur” helped the show go from “He’s not Superman yet” to “He’s still not Superman yet.” As someone who grew up with the show, even as a kid I remember wanting to roll my eyes at all the “pre-Superman Superman” outfits and nicknames. Similarly, for the last couple of seasons, I recall just being like: “Come on, just let him be Superman already!”
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To read more, be sure to check out one of Tom Welling’s major regrets about “Smallville” and what’s happening with his and Michael Rosenbaum’s sequel series.
