Michael Rosenbaum is still sitting on his plan to revive Smallville as an animated series

Smallville premiered on what used to be called The WB more than 20 years ago, and though it had a solid 10-season run (more than 200 episodes!), it can still be easily argued that the show was way ahead of its time. Not only did it predate the superhero boom in general pop culture, but it predated the superhero boom on The CW (which its network transformed into halfway through its run). One could even make the case that a big reason the Arrowverse was so successful was because its creators had learned important lessons from Smallville about what does and doesn’t work on a CW budget. It would be interesting to see what the show would be like today… which is possibly one of the reasons why stars Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum have continued to carry a torch for their old superhero prequel series.

Rosenbaum has actually been sitting on a pitch for a Smallville revival for years, but with a twist: He wants it to be animated. Screen Rant recently caught up with Rosenbaum—who played young Lex Luthor on the series—and asked him about this idea for a Smallville revival, but it sounds like the world isn’t ready for it yet.

He says it’s a “great idea” and that series creators Al Gough and Miles Millar have given it their blessing, but he doesn’t want to pitch it to Warner Bros. until it’s the right time. He says it’s a “no brainer” if they do it “when the time’s right,” and it probably won’t hurt that—as he noted—one of his “best friends in the world” is new DC Studios co-head James Gunn.

Rosenbaum wouldn’t spill any other details (perhaps he learned a lesson from fellow supervillain the Joker about not working for free), but he teased that “the whole cast would like to do it” and that they’d be back voicing the character they played on the show. (The whole cast, Michael?) More important than the cast, though, is the theme song. They need the damn theme song if they’re going to do this!

Smallville’s original finale ended right at the moment when Tom Welling’s Clark Kent officially becomes Superman, with him ripping open his shirt to reveal the Superman logo on his chest as he runs toward the camera. Controversially, Smallville never showed a full-body shot of Welling in a Superman suit and used CGI to create what little of Superman was actually seen, but continuing the story in animation would allow them to go nuts with the sort of actual Superman action that Smallville never really got to do. Plus, maybe we could get a bonus cameo from Rosenbaum’s other superhero character?