How Smallville’s Green Arrow Spinoff Would Have Changed The Show
Smallville’s Green Arrow spinoff would have had a significant impact on the show’s future. Unlike Arrow, the Superman prequel series never led to a shared DC universe on the small screen. However, there were at least some attempts to give some of its characters their own stories outside of Smallville.
During the show’s ten-year run, Oliver Queen was the subject of two known plans for a Smallville spinoff. After forming the Justice League with Impulse, Aquaman, and Cyborg, there were discussions about sending Oliver off and giving his team their own superhero adventures. In 2018, Hartley confirmed talk of a different spinoff idea, which may have been titled Metropolis. According to Hartley, it would have focused on the exploits of Green Arrow and Lois Lane (Erica Durance) in Metropolis. Hartley didn’t elaborate on when this would have happened, but based on when their relationship was relevant, it makes sense that the spinoff would have launched between seasons 6 and 7.
Separating Oliver and Lois from Smallville for Metropolis would have been huge for the show. It most likely would haven’t affected the endgame, as it was always the plan for Clark to end up with Lois by the end of the series. However, the spinoff would have given the show even less time to develop their romance. Losing Lois – even temporarily – would have completely changed Smallville season 8, since this was when the show started to move on from Clark’s smalltown life and shifted the attention to his dynamic with Lois at the Daily Planet. As for Green Arrow, he was integral to the last three seasons as well, so his obsession with killing Lex, relationship with Tess, and romance with Chloe are all stories that may have never happened with Metropolis.
Quite a lot that transpired in Smallville’s last few seasons would have been different without Lois and Justin Hartley's Green Arrow. First of all, it could be that Clark would have been left without a main love interest. Extending the romance with Lana would have been unlikely, especially since leaving the series was Kristin Kreuk’s decision and not necessarily a result of the need to move on to Lois. As for who’d he interact with, it’s possible that the series would have brought Chloe back to the Daily Planet and use her as his partner instead. In the case of Oliver, his departure wouldn’t have made much of a difference in season 7 (where he only made one guest appearance), but the latter seasons might have needed a different superhero ally of Clark’s to take some of his roles, with one candidate being Martian Manhunter.
All things considered, Smallville’s plan for season 8 and beyond simply wouldn’t have worked had the Green Arrow spinoff taken off. Replacing two central characters like Lois and Oliver might have been feasible in certain situations but wouldn’t have been easy. Taking this route would have forced some storylines to be removed altogether, with Clark’s efforts to hide his superhero antics from Lois being one of the biggest to get the cut.
Source: Screenrant
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