Throughout Smallville’s ten-season run, Tom Welling’s Clark Kent didn’t get to sport the full Superman costume. (No, that small reveal at the end of the series finale doesn’t count.) He did, however, wear a number of other outfits and, at one point, he even wore Oliver Queen’s jade duds. From a narrative standpoint, Clark wore the suit for a good reason, but how did Welling himself feel about wearing the Green Arrow costume. Well, the actor recently discussed it and dropped some behind-the-scenes details.
Clark dons Green Arrow’s outfit during Season 6 “Hydro, which is available to stream with a Hulu subscription. During that installment, Lois Lane believes she’s deduced that Oliver Queen is the bow and arrow-wielding hero, and she comes close to finding out the truth. However, Clark dresses up as the archer (and locks lips with Lois) with Oliver present, which throws off the budding journalist. During an episode of the Talkville rewatch podcast (via YouTube), Tom Welling recalled wearing the suit, and it sounds like he wasn’t too enthused:
Yeah I kind of remember just being like, 'This is ridiculous! I'm so glad I don't have to do this all the time.' But I had to. Clark would do this to help his friend... They had to make a suit for me, I think it was like the stunt guy's suit that they had me wear or something.
What’s unique about Tom Welling’s tenure as Clark is that unlike many of his predecessors and successors, he didn’t have to dress up in a grandiose costume every week. During the latter part of the series that changed a bit, but his “superhero suits” were relatively low maintenance-looking. So I can understand why Welling wouldn’t have been so keen to wear a version of the jade duds Justin Hartley sported on the WB/CW series. At the very least, though, Welling seems to understand the storytelling reasons for Clark wearing the outfit.
Dubbed the “perfect” Clark Kent in some circles, Smallville’s version of the Man of Steel is known for sporting a blue shirt and red jacket or a reversal of those colors. By Season 8, he becomes known as “the Blur” after donning a black jacket and shirt that feature his famous insignia. By Season 10, he starts wearing a blue shirt and a red, leather jacket with his family’s crest on it. At the time, those various costumes were meant to signify Kent’s evolution, as he moved further towards his identity as Superman.
Tom Welling also didn’t wear a supersuit when he returned as Clark for the Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover in 2020. In that case, the character appears in standard attire, given he’s working on his farm when he’s approached by the heroes of the multiverse and later Lex Luthor. Should the long-hoped-for Smallville spinoff come to fruition, one has to wonder if Welling would indeed don the iconic red and blue costume. If fan art of Welling is any indication, he would look great in the costume.
Such a prospect remains a pipe dream, but it’s fun to think about. What fans don’t have to imagine, though, is the sight of Tom Welling sporting the Green Arrow costume. Regardless of whether you’ve seen “Hydro” or not, why not give the episode a watch? It’s a relatively enjoyable installment, and the reaction on Lois’ face when she finds out the Green Arrow she’s kissing isn’t her boyfriend, Oliver Queen, is priceless.
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