According to Deadline , Michael Rosenbaum will return as the adult Lex Luthor for the two-hour season finale of SMALLVILLE.
The article states that the deal was finalized Friday night for the actor to reprise his role, which he played for seven years on the CW Network (originally the WB) program.
Since his departure, body doubles and both younger (Jakob Davies, Connor Stanhope, and most recently Lucas Grabeel) and older actors (Mackenzie Gray) have been used to depict various incarnations of Lex Luthor, some of them “damaged” clones, others possibly the actual, though masked and injured man. While acceptable in these roles, these substitutes don’t really compare to the original.
SMALLVILLE showrunners Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders are quoted as saying:
“It feels like the stars are aligning, literally. We couldn’t be more excited about having Michael back. And as far as the way he returns … there’ll be no doubt about how Lex becomes the great rival in Clark Kent’s life. He is the villain of the story.”
Michael Rosenbaum says he’s delighted to return to wrap things up for the series, now in its tenth season.
“I’m simply doing it for all of the fans out there who made SMALLVILLE the great success it is. I appreciate all of their passion, their relentlessness and even their threats. Ha-ha.
I can’t wait to hug the old crew back in Vancouver one last time and see all of my old friends once again… Oh, and for Lex to become the badass he’s destined to be.”
Rosenbaum and the writing staff always took care to depict the character as complex and human, a person wounded and damaged by his upbringing, desperately seeking love, friendship, and trust—all undermined by his ingrained fear of beytral and subsequent need to control.