Comic-Con 2010: Smallville

The cast and crew of Smallville returned to Comic-Con—perhaps for the last time. Barring any nostalgic retrospectives in the future, this is it for Tom Welling, Erica Durance, and company, as Smallville prepares for its tenth and final season. I didn't get a chance to sit in on the panel: that would have meant waking up really early (there were diehard fans camped out overnight) and missing the Supernatural press room (where I got some face time with the Winchesters). But I did chat with the Smallville people at their own press room—here's what they had to say about Season 10. Beware of spoilers!

Erica Durance (Lois Lane)
On Lois' relationship with Clark: "She's there to make things easier for him and make it lighter for him. That's her role in the mythology. That's what Lois Lane was. She was the love of his life." On knowing Clark's secret: "Instead of moping about, oh, you didn't tell me, it's like she finds it and goes, OK, you didn't want to tell me. I'm fine with that. I'll support that. I'll know. I won't get all girly about it and I'll help him with this thing, because that is so much greater than my feelings right now. And that's what I really like about her. And then at some point she'll let him have it and bring him down to earth."

Justin Hartley (Oliver Queen)
On where Oliver begins the season: "It's interesting because he carries the burden of the bad guy inside of him now. So he's got that dark heart, kind of. The weight of the world and all that." On where he hope Oliver ends up: "I'd like to see him kind of have more of that inner peace … The superhero stuff is great, but I think Oliver is a good person, a good human being. He's got a huge heart and that's part of his problem. I'd like to see him get the good end of the stick."

Cassidy Freeman (Tess Mercer)
On how Tess has changed: "I died a lot last season. I think she's a bit humbled by that. I think she realizes she can't do all of this alone, so she's gonna turn to Clark and Oliver for a little bit of help at the beginning of the season." On Tess' big secret: "Midseason she's gonna find out a secret about her past. Which I'm not completely sure what that is yet. I have an idea. I definitely can't talk about it, but it's definitely going to be a big twist for her, and she's going to have to keep it a secret to keep other people safe. And I think it'll change her trajectory at the end of the year."

John Schneider (Jonathan Kent)
On his posthumous role: "I'm in the new season. But honestly, I'm not sure if I'm alive or dead or a vision or a memory." On Papa Kent's surprise return: "I wanted it to be a surprise, but it's obviously not a surprise anymore. … I guess that cat's out of the bag." On how he'll affect Clark: "He's the only force, the only person in Clark Kent's life who can tell him it's OK to be Superman."

Executive Producer/Show Runner Brian Peterson
On the new villain: "We're introducing Darkseid in a really different way, kind of gradually unfolding that character through some of his harbingers or minions in the New Gods mythology a little bit." On the new villain-heroes: "We have another group of kind of ragtag villain-heroes that's gonna come in in episode two with the Suicide Squad … We have Deadshot, we have Rick Flag, and we're bringing back Plastique."

Executive Producer/Show Runner Kelly Souders
On Season 10's themes: "It's really kind of a season of Clark visiting the ghosts of his past to get over some blatant issues, shall we say, and move on to be the Superman that everybody wants him to be and knows him to be." On tying it all together: "We try every season to do new twist and turns and delve deeper into Clark's—who he is as a person. And I think this season, because we know it's ending in 22 episodes, we're literally—we're already, I was laughing, we're already exhausted. We're shooting episode two, we're pulling crazy, crazy hours, because we just want to do all of it. We want to do everything. … I don't know if we're even going to be alive by the end of the season because we're killing ourselves so hard." On the end: "Everyone feels like it's our last chance to do every iconic moment that we want, every reunion we want to see, everything."