Smallville Creators Reveal They at One Point ‘Discussed’ Chloe Turning Out to Be Lois Lane
“Chlois,” it turns out, was — for a hot second, and before Smallville was ever pitched as a series — more than just what would one day be a wild fan theory.
Back during the superhero drama’s run, “Chlois” was a theory that Chloe Sullivan (played by original cast member Allison Mack) would somehow, some way turn out to be the iconic Lois Lane — possibly by adopting “Lois Lane,” her onetime pseudonym, as a new identity (and by some accounts, gulp, in the wake of the real Lois’ demise).
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Now, in a new interview (clocked by KryptonSite’s Craig and embedded below), Smallville co-creators Miles Millar and Al Gough confirm that they did “talk about” Chloe ultimately taking on the Lois Lane mantle.
Guesting on Smallville vets Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling’s TalkVille podcast, Millar confirmed (at the 24:00 mark below), “We did talk about that, that maybe [Chloe] is the proto-Lois and that later on she had to change her identity or something like that, and she becomes Lois Lane.”
(Gough then clarified exclusively for KryptonSite, “We discussed it when we were developing the show in mid-2000,” but by the time the official series pitch document was put together, Lois was Chloe’s “cousin” — as would be established on the TV series.)
That the creators would even consider jumping through such a “Chlois” hoop was a result of the longtime, well-chronicled tug-of-war that TV series about DC comics characters used to have with Warner Bros.’ film division.
“The issue, again, was we wanted to get Lois Lane, and they wouldn’t give her to us,” Gough explained on TalkVille. “And then when she came in in Season 4, there was this huge thing about ‘you can have her for two episodes,’ and then ‘you can have her for three,’ and then ‘you can have her for half the season,’ and [then-Warner Bros. Television president] Peter Roth, to his credit, was like ‘f–k it. She’s in the show now, and she’s just not leaving.'”
“We never asked for permission, ‘Can we have another episode with Lois?'” said Millar. “She became part of the show. It was never questioned again.”
Smallville Takes Flight: An Oral History
As Brian Peterson, co-showrunner for Seasons 8 through 10, shared in a Smallville oral history published to TVLine, “The fact that we only had the Lois Lane character for a limited number of episodes in those first years was actually helpful in telling that story at the pace it needed to be told.”
Chloe’s portrayer, Allison Mack, was arrested in 2018 and charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy, due to her involvement in the NXIVM cult. Mack leaded guilty to manipulating women into becoming sex slaves and was sentenced to three years in prison; she was released from prison early, in July.
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