“Smallville” brought Clark Kent to the edge of becoming Superman without ever putting Tom Welling in the complete signature costume.
Although the series finale featured distant CGI images of Superman in flight, Welling himself did not wear the full suit. His closest on-screen moment came when Clark opened his shirt to reveal the familiar “S” emblem underneath.
Welling told Variety that producing a complete Superman costume for him would have been too expensive. Instead, he wore a sleeveless T-shirt bearing the logo, allowing the finale to suggest the transformation without showing the actor fully suited up.
Cost, however, was only part of the explanation. “Smallville” was built around Clark’s journey toward becoming Superman, rather than his later adventures under that name. For most of the series, Clark neither used the Superman moniker nor appeared in the character’s traditional outfit.
Why “Smallville” Kept Superman at a Distance
The show operated under its well-known “no flights, no tights” rule, which meant Clark was not supposed to fly or wear the Superman costume. The series did take some liberties with the flying restriction, but the suit remained off-limits. The policy was also incorporated into Welling’s contract.
That framework shaped the finale’s approach. Inspired by the ending of “24,” Welling proposed that viewers should not follow Clark as Superman flying away from the roof of the Daily Planet.
“We can’t go with him,” Welling said. “But he’s out there.”
The resulting sequence maintained the central focus of “Smallville”: the story could confirm that Clark had reached his destiny while stopping short of turning the finale into a conventional Superman adventure. The CGI shots supplied a distant view of the hero, while Welling’s emblem reveal provided the actor’s final visual connection to the costume.
Welling’s Clark Returned — Still Without the Suit
Welling later revisited the role during the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover, which unfolded in late 2019 and early 2020. The event brought together multiple versions of Superman from different Earths.
Welling, who nearly passed on “Smallville” in the first place, returned as Clark Kent but again did not appear in the full Superman outfit. This time, the absence of the costume reflected where his character’s life had gone: the Earth-167 version of Clark had surrendered his powers so he could concentrate on his family.
The crossover found him back at the Kent family farm, living with his wife, Lois Lane, played by Erica Durance, and the daughters they were raising.
Caroline Dries, an executive producer on “Batwoman,” explained during a crossover screening that the farm setting represented the version of the character most closely associated with Welling.
“I think the Tom Welling/Clark Kent that we all picture when we think of him is Clark on the farm,” Dries said. “So it made sense that the farm is still there.”
The decision to present Welling’s Clark without powers was not necessarily popular throughout the fandom. Welling, however, approved of the direction.
ShowBiz Take
The missing full suit was not simply an unfinished piece of “Smallville” business. It reflected the show’s fundamental boundary: this was Clark Kent’s path to Superman, not a series centered on Superman after the transformation.
The finale found a compromise among that creative rule, Welling’s contractual arrangement and the cost of a complete costume. Viewers saw Superman through CGI and received the unmistakable emblem reveal, but Welling remained Clark at the exact moment the character’s next chapter began beyond the show’s reach.
His Arrowverse appearance then returned to the image of Clark that the crossover’s producers considered most fitting: on the family farm with Lois and their daughters. Even when given another opportunity to revisit the character, Welling’s version remained defined by Clark’s life rather than by a full Superman suit.