Fans who were eagerly waiting for updates on the Smallville animated sequel don’t have to any longer. In an interview with Screen Rant, Smallville star Tom Welling (Lucifer, The Winchesters) explained that the project won’t be moving forward because Warner Bros. has not responded to the animated series pitch that he and co-star Michael Rosenbaum (Impastor, The Neighbor) gave, Comicbook.com reports. In order to develop this project, the pair needs permission from the studio company to begin working on it. Furthermore, Welling also shared his theories as to why they have not gotten a response from the studio yet, and according to him, it seems like it’s a matter of priority, and their pitch isn’t one of them.

“We want it to work,” Welling explained via Comicbook.com. “The honest answer is we have not been able to get Warner Brothers to give us the thumbs up. We need their permission.”

“We haven’t even gotten a response,” he continued via Comicbook.com. “It’s the weirdest thing because it is more of a fan-driven idea. It’s not going to be a blockbuster. It’s not going to be a financial windfall for any of us. We all like each other, we all like working together, and if we could do it, it’d be fun. But Warner Bros. — and I’m not hating on them — they just haven’t gotten back to us. It’s not a priority for them, It’s like a not-returning-phone-calls-thing.”

According to Comicbook.com, this animated sequel of Smallville was something fans pointed out earlier this year. In a previous interview with Comicbook, Rosenbaum explained that the pair worked on some type of “loose animation” for the project and seemed very happy with the result. Furthermore, Rosenbaum also previously shared that “when it’s the right time, we’ll pitch it.” So, according to what Welling said recently, they seem ready to start working on this project but haven’t been allowed to do so yet.

If anyone is interested in knowing what the Smallville animated series would be about, Comicbook interviewed Welling back in 2022, and he explained that with great detail, which is available to read below:

“We’re working on an animated series that picks up right after our Smallville [finale] and… telling our own story,” Welling said at the time via Comicbook.com. “Our vision is that we get Erica. It might be tough to get Allison. But even Sam Jones III (Blue Mountain State, ER), who played Pete Ross, and Lionel Luthor is going to be a big part of that. John Glover (Fear the Walking Dead, Batman & Robin) wants to do it; we’ve already been into this. We’ve already gotten animation, we just don’t have the stories yet because Al and Miles are busy doing Tim Burton-like (Wednesday, Batman) movies. As soon as they are done with that, we’re going to do this. I want to be Clark’s voice; I want Erica to be Lois’s voice. That’s going to be the fun of it. I think there’s a story that Al and Miles are going to tell that’s individual and new and call it a multiverse thing. But let’s see where it goes, and it’ll be fun, so yeah.”

The original Smallville series is available to stream in its entirety on Disney+ and Hulu.