DcEntertainment

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.

Much like the Disney acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, television is only a part of what this change represents. However, it does affect the television industry and should be mentioned on this blog. DC Comics has changed its name to DC Entertainment to encompass more forms of media, such as television and movies. Also the president of DC, Paul Levitz, has been replaced by a Time Warner officer named Diane Nelson.

While there are those that might disagree with me, this move looks like it's a response to Marvel's success with its movie franchises. Even though DC has done better on television (Smallville, plus various cartoons like The Brave and the Bold), movies are where the big bucks are. Granted, DC and Warner Brothers have had major success with its Batman movies, but it hasn't built any other franchises.

And as with the Marvel acquisition, we'll have to wait and see what the long-term effects of this corporate change will be. DC also loses the rights to Superman in 2013, so exciting things are afoot.