Grant Gustin's The Flash ended up making the Smallville episode series star Tom Welling was not game to do, and it led to one of the best moments of the Arrowverse's most popular show. When it comes to TV series, DC has paved the way for superheroes. Through the Arrowverse, DC's shared TV universe, the comic book giant brought to life some of the best live-action DC series and showed the world just how successful a shared universe on TV could be. Grant Gustin's nine seasons of The Flash made him the star of the franchise's longest-running series.
However, it all started before that. For the Arrowverse's the Flash to run, Smallville's Superman had to walk. Tom Welling led ten seasons of Smallville, with the actor telling the story of how Clark Kent went from a teenager to the Man of Steel everyone knows him as. Smallville moved forward superhero TV shows in a big way, with great VFX for its time, compelling characters, and gripping storylines. Clark Kent's journey to becoming Superman was filled with bottle episodes, and the idea for one Smallville episode ended up giving The Flash one of Gustin's best Barry Allen moments.
Tom Welling Refused To Make A Smallville Musical
The Idea Was Only Partly Adapted By The DC Series
Smallville explored genres with quite a few bottle episodes over the course of its ten seasons. Bottle episodes are those that tell self-contained stories, normally not playing into the main events of the show. With 217 episodes and 20-plus episodes per season, Smallville had plenty of time to focus on stories that had more fun with characters and were not as serious as the mainline plots. One of those bottle episodes was "Noir," the twentieth episode of Smallville season 6. As its title states, the episode took inspiration from classic noir films.
Smallville could also have made the episode quite unique among the show's offerings. However, Tom Welling refused to film a Smallville musical episode. According to the Clark Kent actor, he was approached about the idea of making "Noir" a musical. That did not interest the DC star, who said he would not show up on set if Smallville moved forward with the musical noir idea. In the end, Welling was victorious, and Smallville kept singing and dancing out of the season 6 episode, with Grant Gustin's The Flash series adapting that idea years later.
Grant Gustin’s The Flash Had A Musical That Changed Barry Allen’s Life With One Of The Show’s Best Moments
The Flash's Musical Episode Had An Impactful Ending
While Tom Welling shot down the Smallville musical episode, Grant Gustin was not only in favor of The Flash doing it, but also had the help of a major Arrowverse star to make it as good as possible. The Flash season 3, episode 17, "Duet," revolved around the Flash and Supergirl being put into a coma by Music Meister, with both having to sing and dance in a musical noir before being able to return to reality. There were a lot of great moments from crossovers between the two shows' casts, but the hour's strongest came from The Flash's stars.
At the end of the episode, Barry Allen surprises Iris West with one of the most emotional moments of the Arrowverse and superhero series in general. With Grant Gustin singing "Runnin' Home to You," the gorgeous original song made for the musical episode, Barry got down on one knee and proposed to Iris. She said yes, meaning the Flash would marry the love of his life. It changed the show in multiple ways, with Iris' role in the series only growing from there and her relationship with Barry reaching its comic-book status.
Smallville’s Musical Would Not Nearly Have Had As Big Of An Impact As The Flash’s
"Duet" Was An Overall Better Entry Than "Noir"
The Flash doing the musical noir Smallville ended up not moving forward with worked out for the best. The Tom Welling series used "Noir" as a typical bottle episode, with some nods to the larger plot and where things stood between Clark Kent, Lana Lang, and Lex Luthor, but not major events that fundamentally changed the show. As for The Flash, everything was different. The Arrowverse series had a full-on crossover with Melissa Benoist's Supergirl and ended with Barry proposing to Iris, thus changing the status of the main characters of The Flash forever.
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While Welling's Clark Kent would go on to end with Erica Durance's Lois Lane, The Flash saw Grant Gustin's Barry Allen and Candice Patton's Iris West stay together for the rest of the Arrowverse series, dealing with issues as they rose up and moving past them. The marriage storyline allowed DC to bring in Barry and Iris' kids from the future in subsequent seasons, with their stories, particularly Nora's, becoming integral to the multiverse nature of the Arrowverse series. While a Smallville musical could have been fun, Welling's decision did not cost the show anything, but The Flash needed its musical.
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