Synopsis

The origins of the world’s greatest hero–from Krypton refugee Kal-el’s arrival on Earth through his tumultuous teen years to Clark Kent’s final steps toward embracing his destiny as the Man of Steel.

Tollin/Robbins Productions originally wanted to do a series about a young Bruce Wayne, but the feature-film division of Warner Bros. decided to develop an origin story film for Batman and did not want to compete with a television series.

In 2000, Tollin/Robbins approached Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros.

That year, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar developed a pilot based on the film Eraser.

After watching the pilot, Roth approached Gough and Millar about developing a pilot about a young Superman; the two made a "no tights, no flights" rule that Clark would not fly or wear the Superman suit during the series. thumb|upright|left|alt=Young, blonde woman with arms folded at a table|Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) was created for the series.

They created a loneliness in the character which they felt would drive him to reach out to the teenagers, a loneliness echoed in Clark and Lana.

Chloe Sullivan (another character created for the series) was considered the "outsider" the show needed to ensure that someone would notice the strange happenings in Smallville rather than a "precursor to Lois Lane".