Smallville is one of the most iconic and long-running DC adaptations. The series was a reimaging of the Superman story that redefined the character for the 21st century and introduced a new generation to Superman and the world of DC Comics. Starting in season four of the series the creators started bringing in the wider DC universe. Heroes like Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, and Martian Manhunter were just a few of the popular DC heroes to appear in the series.

Yet while the series got so many iconic DC heroes, there were some pretty famous names that never made it on the series. These reasons were due to behind-the-scenes complications due to the inner workings of Warner Bros. and DC Comics. While many of these characters would later appear in the Smallville season 11 comic series published between 2012 and 2013, it still was not the same as getting to see them in live-action, interacting with the soon-to-be Superman. These are five of DC’s biggest superheroes that never appeared in Smallville.

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Batman

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Next to Superman, Batman is the biggest hero in DC and some would say the most popular. Fans had wanted to see a young Clark Kent meet a young Bruce Wayne for the entire run of Smallville, but the producers were constantly denied. Smallville even almost began as a series focusing on a young Bruce Wayne before being shifted to Superman.

The reason for Batman’s denial was simple: Warner Bros. had the character off limits due to the Batman film projects in development which morphed into The Dark Knight trilogy. Batman Begins opened in 2005, the summer after season four concluded, and The Dark Knight opened in the summer of 2008 between seasons seven and eight.

The creators found plenty of ways around not being able to use Batman. In the season five episode, Vengeance, the character of Arcata was reimagined as a Batman-type vigilante. In season six, the series introduced Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow. Green Arrow is also a billionaire superhero with no superpowers but an array of high-tech gadgets.

Green Arrow had a history of being mocked for being a Batman copy in the comics, but the producers of Smallville used that to their advantage giving them their own Batman-type character but to have more creative freedom. Smallville made Green Arrow a more popular superhero, ultimately leading to the CW developing Arrow which resulted in the Arrowverse. In a way, WB denying Smallville the right to use Batman inadvertently launched an entirely new DC franchise.

Wonder Woman

     DC Comics

Wonder Woman, alongside Superman and Batman, makes up the DC trinity. The character is one of the most iconic superheroes of all time and had a successful television series in the 1970s, so she seemed perfect for a guest spot on Smallville. However, the character never made a live-action appearance. Similar to Batman, Warner Bros. was in development on a Wonder Woman in the early 2000s when Smallville was airing and didn’t want to have two versions of the character. Around 2005 when Smallville started bringing on DC superheroes, Joss Whedon was attached to write and direct a Wonder Woman film that never materialized.

The fictional superhero in the series, Warrior Angel, has a logo similar to Wonder Woman’s and in season 10 Chloe Sullivan tells Clark about “a wondrous woman” and in the same breath she mentions a reference to Batman as “a billionaire with high-tech toys.” Wonder Woman may not have appeared in the series, but her presence was surely felt.

Green Lantern

While Batman and Wonder Woman never appeared in Smallville, numerous other Justice League members did with one very notable exception: Green Lantern. Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, or the Kyle Rayner incarnations of Green Lantern ever made an appearance on the series. It is unclear exactly why, although it could be that Warner Bros. did spend a good part of the mid-2000’s developing a Green Lantern movie that eventually was released in 2011, the same year Smallville concluded.

Green Lantern not appearing on Smallville did set some interesting precedents. It was one of the first times a Justice League origin did not have a Green Lantern character as part of the team, which would be carried over into the DCU with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The other was Green Lantern never getting shown on a long-running DC series, as the Arrowverse had teased the characters for years but with The Flash set to conclude the series in 2023 it appears the character will not make an appearance after all this time. The character might just be too expensive for television.

Shazam

     Warner Bros.

Shazam used to be so popular that when his comic was first published (when he was called Captain Marvel), his comics even outsold Superman. When the character was purchased by DC Comics after its original publication Fawcett Comics went out of business, DC loved pairing young Billy Batson and his superhero alter ego with Superman.

While no official reason for Shazam not appearing on Smallville has ever been given, there are likely two factors. The first is like many of the other characters on this list Warner Bros. was developing a Shazam movie and didn’t want to confuse audiences. In 2007 Peter Segal was set to direct a Shazam movie and this is around the time that Dwayne Johnson started courting Black Adam.

The other factor is that since Smallville dealt with a young Clark Kent, his meeting a kid like Billy Batson and turning into a superhero like Shazam may not have the same story impact as Clark being a fully grown Superman. However, the series did pay homage to the character in the episode Warrior, which saw a young comic book fan turn into an adult superhero thanks to an enchanted comic book.

Constantine

Clark Kent met quite a few magical superheroes during Smallville’s run, including both Zatanna and Doctor Fate. Yet one popular DC magic user he did not get a chance to encounter was John Constantine. Part of it was because, at the time, DC had kept their superheroes and Vertigo line characters pretty separate. It was not until the New 52 in September 2011 (four months after Smallville concluded) that Constantine became a bigger part of the DC Universe and interacted with more of the superhero community. The other factor was Constantine did get to star in his own feature film in 2005 starring Keanu Reeves.

While Constantine never did get to appear on Smallville, he got his own television series in 2014. While it was canceled after only one season star Matt Ryan went on to reprise his role in the Arrowverse as part of Legends of Tomorrow and would play a role in DC’s epic crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths. With a sequel to the Keanu Reeves movie in development and Jenna Coleman playing Johanna Constantine on Sandman, it goes to show how far Warner Bros. has come with letting multiple versions of a character exist since Smallville aired.