The small-screen Superman mythos just breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
After nearly a year of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation, Michael Rosenbaum has inked a deal to reprise his role as Smallville‘s Lex Luthor in the two-hour season finale airing May 13, TVLine has learned.
“I’m delighted to return for the series finale,” Rosenbaum tells TVLine exclusively. “I’m simply doing it for all of the fans out there who made Smallville the great success it is. I appreciate all of their passion, their relentlessness, and even their threats. Ha ha.”
The actor continues, “I can’t wait to hug the old crew back in Vancouver one last time and see all of my old friends once again. Oh, and for Lex to become the bad-ass he’s destined to be.”
Executive producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson say of Rosenbaum’s encore, “It feels like the stars are aligning, literally. We couldn’t be more excited. And as far as the way he returns… there’ll be no doubt about how Lex becomes the great rival in Clark Kent’s life. He is the villain of the story.”
Rosenbaum’s return was considered by many to be the missing piece of the show’s 10th final run, which has welcomed back alums such as John Schneider and Annette O’Toole (as Jonathan and Martha Kent) and John Glover (Lionel Luthor), and later this season Laura Vandervoort (Kara/Supergirl) and Callum Blue (Zod).
But having Lex back in the flesh — given the series’ wrap-up and a season-long storyline strongly hinting at the supervillain’s return — seemed almost imperative. At the time that Smallville‘s final season was announced, series star/exec producer Tom Welling expressed that he would “definitely” like to have Rosenbaum back, saying, “With Clark propelled into being Superman, how do you do it without a Lex Luthor? That just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Indeed.
Rosenbaum last appeared on Smallville in May 2008, for the Season 7 finale. Prior to his encore as Lex, he next can be seen in a recurring role on the Fox comedy Breaking In, which premieres April 6.
Source : http://www.tvline.com/2011/02/smallville-michael-rosenbaum-back-for-series-finale/
