Today broadcast on Prime Video, Smallville was one of the iconic teen series of the 2000s. It is therefore not surprising to learn that it inspired another fantasy fiction, all five seasons of which are available on Paramount+.
After The Adventures of Superman in the 1950s, Superboy in the 1980s and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the 1990s, the superhero returned in the early 2000s to our small screen with the series Smallvillewhose ten seasons can be (re)watched on Prime Video. For nearly a decade, Tom Welling played Clark Kent, a young man who was taken in at the age of three by a couple of farmers living in Kansas. Years later, he tries to live a normal life despite extraordinary powers that he tries as best he can to hide from the eyes of his best friends. Broadcast from 2001 to 2011, the American series left its mark on viewers, including those of the creators of another fiction, British this time, to be seen or rewatched on the Paramount+ platform.
Series Merlin was inspired by Smallville to imagine the magician’s youth
While Merlin celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, Johnny Capps, one of the co-creators of the fantasy series, revealed to the English site Radio Times that British fiction was inspired by Smallvillewhich told the story of the youth of the future Superman. The screenwriters of Merlin wanted to do the same by focusing on the magician’s past, whose sole purpose is to protect Arthur Pendragon, the future king of the kingdom of Camelot. In addition to Smallvillethe team of the fantasy series was also inspired by the animated film Shrek. “For us, humor was really important. We talked a lot about Shrek and how the film crew worked. The parents loved it and the kids loved it. It was about finding that slightly familiar humor, playing with the legend and having a little fun with it“, revealed Johnny Capps.
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Merlin : a reboot of the series in preparation?
In this same interview, producer Johnny Capps returned to a possible return of Merlin on the television. “Julian (Murphy) and I talk a lot about exploring the legend again. If we do it again, we would be able to do better special effects“, he confided to the English site. “We could improve it now, because the technology is much better, but as far as anything else, I don’t think I would change Merlin at all“. If the creators of the series are not against a reboot of the fantasy series, this is not the case for Colin Morgan, the interpreter of the young wizard, who said he had definitively turned the page.
Article written in collaboration with 6Médias
