Smallville's Tom Welling will return as Superman for The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths

The Arrowverse just added another Superman. TVLine reports that Tom Welling, who first played Clark Kent back in 2001 in The WB series Smallville, will return to reprise his role as the Man of Steel in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, which will air across five CW shows this December. Welling played Clark Kent through 10 seasons of Smallville, first on The WB and then on The CW. According to TVLine, his appearance in Crisis will “reveal what happened to Clark Kent almost ten years” after the events of that series, which concluded in 2011.

Crossing over the characters of the various Arrowverse shows -- which include Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and the incoming Batwoman -- for a big midseason event has become something of a tradition in recent years over on The CW, but since the eighth and final season of Arrow is about to begin, executive producer Greg Berlanti and company are pulling out all the stops this time around. Crisis on Infinite Earths is the small-screen adaptation of the legendary DC Comics event of the same name, which spanned a multiverse and united various versions of DC's greatest heroes for one massive, continuity-altering story.

In that spirit, the Arrowverse is getting quite the infusion of outside talent for its version of Crisis in the form of several actors who've already played major DC Comics characters in other properties. Welling joins a cast of confirmed stars that already includes Brandon Routh, who will play Superman again for the first time since Superman Returns, Batman: The Animated Series legend Kevin Conroy as an older version of Bruce Wayne, and the legendary Burt Ward, who played Robin in the Batman live-action TV series from the 1960s and will appear in the Batwoman leg of the crossover in a still-undisclosed role.

Even that's not the extent of the talent the crossover will incorporate into the Arrow-verse, though. Crisis is also set to bring in the DC Comics-based series Black Lightning, which up until now had existed in its own little bubble, to the Arrowverse, and the event has also drafted Legends of Tomorrow's version of Jonah Hex (Johnathon Schaech) and Arrowverse Lois Lane Elizabeth Tulloch for the fun. Plus, behind the camera, legendary DC Comics writer Marv Wolfman, who scripted the original Crisis event, is set to co-write Arrow's episode for the crossover.

Crisis on Infinite Earths kicks off December 8 with Supergirl, then continues across the other four series on subsequent nights.