Smallville gossip

[ivyfic]

Even though I bet most of you know this already,

I have mentioned before that the casting of James Marsters as Brainiac in Smallville this season seems like blatant Buffy fan pandering. I offer now an alternative explanation. According to a source not at all in the industry but who seems to know these things, the WB is casting Marsters in Smallville to prevent him from taking on new projects while they negotiate a Spike movie/mini-series/spin-off series/whatever. I don't pretend to claim this is the real reason, but it could be the reason. How sneaky of the WB.

Comments

[dotsomething.livejournal.com]

I don't watch SV as you know, but James Marsters as Brainiac sounds really very intriguing.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yes, it might be pandering. On the other hand, without the bleached out hair and accent, Marsters is actually hard to recognize as the same character, believe it or not. Unlike Brickface Boreanaz or "I AM SO BUFFY NO MATTER HOW MUCH I WHIMPER" Gellar, he tends not to register outside of Buffy because so much of his character on it was faked.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I disagree - I watched him in "Cool Money," an absolutely crap made-for-TV movie. Even though he'd buzzed his hair and given up the accent, he was still very recognizable. What was funny was that the British accent still snuck through sometimes. I guess if you have to speak like that for years, some of it sticks.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

He was also in some episodes of Andromeda...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Yes, but that was Spike in space - he had the hair and the accent. I could completely buy Spike living that long and making himself out to be Nietszchean royalty, but don't get me started on that...

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

When do the new episodes start up? Maybe I'll remember to watch (or at least tape) most of them.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The season starts in October; I don't know when Spike makes his first appearance.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Because I'm just that big of a geek, I've been trying to figure out if this casting is evidence for which Braniac he'll be. I think it's evidence for (at least initially) him being Human-sideshow-mentalist-Braniac, as they're probably not going to bring in Other Alien Races at this point....

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Given their taken on MXPTLK (or however that's spelled) being a foreign student with psychic powers rather than an imp from the fifth dimension, I would guess they'd be going for an Earth-based Braniac. That being said, I know next to nothing about Superman comic canon. The only Braniac I've encountered is the one in the animated series.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

It's spelled the way it's pronounced: Mxyzptlk

:P

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I feel no shame for not knowing how to spell fictional names with no vowels.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Actually, the way it's pronounced by 90% of DC insiders is "mix pickle". I think they invented "mix-yez-pitel-ic" for the cartoon.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Really? I've never heard it that way, but I have heard Mix-el-plick. I got the correct pronunciation from my Superman Encyclopedia. :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Geekiest. Debate. Ever.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

You know, I thought the exact same thing. Sideshow mentalist, hopefully possessed by the disimbodied 12th-level Coluan intelligence...