Clark's Kryptonian father Jor-El will be appearing on Smallville in Season 9, and he'll be played by Julian Sands. It'll be a flashback or time-travel plot device (much like his last appearance in season three when he was played by Tom Welling), so it's not as if the character is coming back from the dead or anything. This isn't Buffy.

The character has been voiced by Terrance Stamp practically since the beginning of the series and has only appeared once as Tom Welling, although his American accent at the time was never explained. Sands plays a younger version, as well, but at least the accent is correct. I wonder if Sands will be trying a Terrance Stamp impersonation the same way that Ewan McGregor copied Alec Guinness' accent for the Star Wars prequels. That would be kind of cool.

Sands is a good actor and I'm sure he'll do the part proud. I do wonder how this series will be affected by the shake-up at DC Comics. Time will tell.