Before they created the Netflix series Wednesday, Al Gough and Miles Millar developed the hit series Smallville on The CW. In a recent interview, the pair discussed what they’d do differently if they had another chance to make the show now.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter recently for Netflix’s Wednesday, the pair were asked if they would change anything about Smallville if given the chance. For Gough, he said that the Clark Kent and Lois Lane dynamic played out a little bit too long and “something else” should have happened.
“The Clark-Lana thing played out way too long,” said Gough. “Something else had to happen there. I think that was one that got a little repetitive. My younger daughter is now, finally after Wednesday, she’s going back to watch Smallville, and she’s in Season 2. She goes, ‘What’s the deal with these two?’ I’m like, ‘It was a different time.’ So, I think there are things there, if we went back, we probably would be a little more adventurous with some of those relationships and bring them to certain heads and let them play out.”
Millar also touched on what he would have done differently, specifically mentioning the female characters. Along with likely having done more to give agency to Lois Lane, Millar spoke about how the pair originally just wanted to get to five seasons and ended up at 10 when all was said and done.
“We were definitely cautious and just very conscious of the fact we wanted to get to five seasons, and we ended up at 10 seasons, but we’re just like, ‘OK, if we split them apart, what are we gonna do?’ Again, as the father of girls, I think the female characters we would do differently today,” Millar said. “I think Lana, her agency was not there. She could have been a much stronger character, and she always felt put in positions of weakness. It’s a different era, a different time. So, that’s something I think we could have done and would definitely look at to do better.”
Smallville was developed for television by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics characters. Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson served as executive producers, along with James Marshall, Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins, and Joe Davola. The series was produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions, Millar/Gough Ink, and Warner Bros. Television.
