Michael Rosenbaum Departs Smallville
Written by Ian Cullen on May 2, 2008 – 2:19 pm -
Smallville’s Michael Rosenbaum who played Lex Luthor on the hit CW series has been saying he has wanted to move on for quite awhile, and it would appear that he’s finally made the decision and departed the series.
For seven seasons Rosenbaum has brought a mix of deviousness and mystery to the character that would go on to become Superman’s main enemy in both comic book series and TV and Movie series.
Smallville presented us with a different Lex. Before Smallville Lex has always been a baddie, but Smallville gave us some interesting background information by showing us that Clark Kent (who would eventually don the cape and big ‘S’) and Lex Luthor started out as friends, and over the period of seven seasons we have watched the events that led to a fracture in that friendship that caused Lex and Clark fall out.
This departure means that two new villains will be brought in to replace Lex.
“It has been an honor and pleasure to work with Michael for the past seven seasons,” said executive producers Darren Swimmer, Todd Slavkin, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson in a joint statement released by The CW.
“He is one of the best actors on television and has never failed to bring a new layer to the character of Lex Luthor in every episode. While Michael won’t be a series regular and we won’t have the pleasure of working with him on a weekly basis this fall, we like to think that we haven’t seen the last of Lex Luthor.”
As said above Rosenbaum had wanted to fly off for some time and in his official letter too CW that they provided to the media he pretty much summed up his feelings for his time and departure from the show with the following quote.
“It is time for me to start the next chapter of my life and career,” he said. “I hope that I gave you some enjoyment over the years, and that you found my portrayal of Lex Luthor to be satisfying. I am truly grateful, as ‘Smallville’ fans are the best fans out there.”
This is the second big departure from the hit series. Earlier this year both creators of the series and join producers Al Gough and Miles Millar also left leaving a stable of writers to continue running the series without them.
Smallville will be entering its 8th Season later this year in the autumn on CW over in the US.
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Tags: Clark Kent, comic books, cw, lex luthor, Smallville, Superman
Posted in SF-TV & Movie News | 2 Comments »
By Ganza on Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
I am seriously gagged by what I am hearing about the lose of Michael R as Lex Luther. I mean Lana getting the axe is not such a horrible thing. As far as we, both my husband and myself,are concerned, Lana’s character should have been written off along time ago.
1) On,off,on off= annoying
2) the character is a spaz…
she talks to dead people?
she’s posessed by a witch?
she becomes a vampire….Lol?
she was weak but strong?
ignorant and naive but crafty & smart?
in love with Wittney and hates him?
in love with Clark and hates him?
in love w/Dude fm Paris but hates him?
in love with Lex and hates him too?
And so on and so forth to infinity… Lol.
The writers would have done better to make her fall for Jimmy Olsen and run off with him to Mountainville hahaha and they could raise chickens Lol!!
But I digress (sp?), Point is her character was so poorly written and dragged out. I was so over her a long lllllllong time ago.
As for Lex, that just blows buttchunks.
He became The Lex Luther.
I never wanted a character in any series to go bad, lol but with him I did. Michael R. set the standard for Lex, in my book. Debating if I want to buy season 7 or later now….
By Ian Cullen on Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
Season 8 is seriously missing the Lex. I personally think Smallville should have ended its run a couple of years back. Seems to have gone off the boil somewhat of late.
As for season 7. Lex is pretty much in every episode of that. He finally gets killed off in the last epsiode, only he isn’t actually dead, in so much as they have kind of left it open for him to return should they wish to use that option later down the line.
My feeling is. That this current season 8. Is the last season of the show. Unless it gets a last minute renewel, which is always a strong possibility given that The CW don’t really have anything to replace the show with.
That said. The CW has been having some pretty serious financial issues over the last year or so, and the networks future has been on the fringe for sometime.
So we will have to wait and see what happens.