A Smallville And Supernatural Crossover Was Pitched, And It Sounds Ridiculous
Back when I was watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" weekly, there were few television moments more exciting than when that series would crossover over with its spinoff "Angel." Sadly, once the shows were airing on different networks, the events of Sunnydale barely warranted a mention in Los Angeles, at least until "Buffy" was wrapping up its run, but those episodes were fun when they happened. The CW's Arrowverse later became known for its epic crossovers, which attempted to capture the energy of some of DC Comics' major events.
Across the decades, TV crossovers have ranged from intuitive ("The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons") to truly unexpected ("I Love Lucy" and "Adventures of Superman"). Sure, "Grey's Anatomy" and "Station 19" makes sense, but no one would've anticipated "Bones" and "Family Guy" before it happened. Well, somewhere in between Buffy and Angel's timeless romance and multiple crisis that brought together infinite earths, there were two less likely shows that could've crossed over: "Smallville" and "Supernatural."
Interestingly, "Supernatural" star Jensen Ackles was originally in contention for the role of Clark Kent on "Smallville," a part he ultimately lost to Tom Welling. The showrunners liked the actor enough to bring him in as a series regular in season 4, in which Ackles played Jason Teague. "Supernatural" began the very next year and brothers Dean and Sam (Jared Padalecki) Winchester would spend a whopping 15 seasons "saving people" and "hunting things." In 2006, The WB merged with UPN, forming The CW, when the Superman prequel was in its sixth season and the then-fledgling monster show in its second. Both series continued their respective runs for quite a few years longer and somewhere in there, an idea was floated to have "Supernatural" and "Smallville" cross over.
What could the crossover have been about?
When speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2016, former "Supernatural" production assistant and co-writer of season 6 episode "Frontierland" Jackson Stewart revealed the idea for a crossover between "Smallville" and "Supernatural":
"There was a lot of really cool ideas that some of the writers had. They had an episode where they really wanted to do a Superman curse that was about every actor who plays Superman ends up getting killed. So they find out that Tom Welling from Smallville is next and have to save him. I thought that was one of the funniest ideas that I'd heard."
I'll be honest, upon hearing that there could've been a crossover between these two shows, my initial thought is that it would've been terrible. Despite sharing a network, the series are quite different in tone and it seems like they wouldn't have meshed very well. However, having seen "Supernatural" pull off some delightfully meta episodes that must've sounded ridiculous on the page, I do think this idea might've actually worked.
If any show could do it...
"Supernatural" season 4 introduced the character of Chuck, a prophet who thought he was merely a writer, and had been penning pulpy novels about the adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester — characters he believed he'd created. With a wink to the audience, the show used to Chuck to poke fun at the series, including rather hilariously calling out some episodes that fans had less than stellar opinions of. It was not only a clever development that proved highly amusing, but it also opened up several new storytelling opportunities in one of the show's finest seasons.
Meanwhile, season 6 may have been one of the worst outings for the series, but it does feature "The French Mistake," an episode which finds Sam and Dean tossed into an alternate dimension in which they are characters played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles on a show called (you guessed it) "Supernatural." It's certainly the best episode of the season and one of show's most fun, period. Let's also not forget about the incredibly entertaining season 13 installment "Scoobynatural," which sees Sam and Dean transported into the animated realm of Scooby-Doo.
These are just some examples that prove there's a real chance "Supernatural" could've made this crossover sing. The stakes were especially low, considering the implication wasn't that the two series share a universe, but only that the TV show "Smallville" exists in Sam and Dean's world. Of course, you could say the fact that Ackles had previously appeared in "Smallville" creates a plot hole, but I'm sure that, much like the "Gilmore Girls" reference that pokes fun at Padalecki's former gig, the writers would've been able to make a joke out of it.
The Superman curse
The idea of the Superman curse is something that already exists and that might've proven tricky to navigate for this crossover, had the episode come to fruition. It stems from several misfortunes involving those who have suited up as the Man of Steel or been involved in the projects, most notably George Reeves and Christopher Reeve. While no one lends much credence to the theory, some might've balked at the real-world significance of tragedy befalling actors portraying Superman, and it could have come off as quite callous, depending on how the subject was treated. In what surely would have been a lighthearted episode, I'd like to imagine that was a balancing act the writers could've pulled off.
It's unclear when the idea was pitched, but if it was season 6, which was when Stewart co-wrote "Frontierland," that would've been during the 10th and final season of "Smallville," so it's entirely possible no one wanted to mess with the show's swan song. With both series off the air, we'll never see how a crossover between "Smallville" and "Supernatural" would've turned out. However, Welling did appear in prequel series "The Winchesters" as Samuel Campbell (father to Mary and grandfather to Sam and Dean), so at least he got to dip a toe into that world.