For those of you who weren't paying attention during the last ten seconds of Smallville's eighth season finale, the "big bad" of the ninth season is going to be the Kryptonian Phantom Zone villain, General Zod. Now it's been announced that Callum Blue of The Tudors and The Secret Diary of a Call Girl will be playing the character.

I was secretly hoping for Terrance Stamp, a.k.a. the voice of Jor-El, for the role but this will do. At least they stuck with a Brit. It would seem like heresy at this stage to have Zod played by someone with an American accent.

Considering that Zod has been a presence on the show for several of its seasons, it makes sense that they wrap up the whole series with a final confrontation between Clark and Zod. Now if they can only give Clark the tights and let him fly, the fans of the series can walk away happy.