This past weekend marked twenty years since the world saw Smallville for the very first time, and today fans are graced with the release of Smallville: The Complete Series on Blu-ray for the very first time. To mark this special occasion, Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Milles Millar have made some press rounds, which includes a look back at the time when Shazam’s Zachary Levi auditioned for the role of Lex Luthor, years before Levi was recognized as the star of Shazam!, or even Chuck. Apparently, this didn’t go as well as planned and years later, the movie star and producer Zachary Levi can have their last laugh.
Zachary Levi first auditioned for Lex Luthor On Smallville
However, this isn’t entirely true. Levi’s first audition, for the producers, went well. This was when they took Levi to Warner Bros. as their pick of the role.
“Zach Levi did an amazing audition for Lex. Incredible,” Gough told The Hollywood Reporter. “We all went into The WB with Zach to be Lex. That audition was kind of a disaster. In leaving the audition, I remember thinking ‘Oh, that was the biggest chance of his life.’ And then he went on to incredible success. So you just never know.”
While no details were revealed, and it’s due to professional courtesy, the producers never acknowledged the event if Levi hadn’t come out to speak in public – on an episode of Inside of You, a podcast hosted by Michael Rosenbaum, who actually played the role of Lex Luthor on Smallville, and went to receive appreciation for the role.
In a surprising twist, Lex’s father, Lionel Luthor was played by John Glover who went on to play Thaddeus Sivana’s dad in Shazam!
Smallville: The Complete Series is available on BluRay now.
The series stars Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk. However, for Zachary Levi, things are looking pretty good as Shazam!: Fury of the Gods will soon hit the theatres on June 2, next year. The film will see the Shazam family squaring off against Greek Goddesses although considering how John Glover’s story ended in the first part, it’s unlikely that we will see him again in the sequel.
