She’s already booked. Tom Welling was opening up about the animated Smallville series that’s in development when the actor made an offhanded quip about Allison Mack amid her prison stint.
“We’re working on an animated series that picks up right after our Smallville [which ended with season 10 in 2011], and, again, telling our own story,” the 44-year-old actor told a fan who asked about the possibility of a revival or reunion for the Superman origin story at Fan Expo Vancouver on February 19. He and Erica Durance, who played Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively, on the CW series, were fielding questions together during the panel.
Welling continued “And our vision is that we get Erica [back]. It might be tough to get Allison,” Welling quipped. “But you know, we’ll get Kristen [Kreuk].”
The audience chuckled at the awkward mention of the actress, 39, who played Chloe Sullivan, and Durance, 43, tried to stifle a laugh as well. “We have Zoom,” Durance joked of her imprisoned former colleague and Welling agreed.
“Too soon?” the Canada native asked the audience. Welling, however, moved right along, discussing the series further, adding that Sam Jones III and John Glover where both interested. He noted that a live action reunion was probably not in the cards beyond his and Durance’s Crisis on Infinite Earths cameos.
Several of Mack’s female Smallville costars have spoken out about the actress trying to recruit them to NXIVM.
“Interestingly, when I look back on it, I had been invited to several meetings, and because I had two little kids at the time, I never really had the time and our schedules never really lined up, so I never ended up attending,” Alaina Huffman, who played Black Canary starting in season 7, told Us Weekly in May 2019. “Honestly, there was always a little something off about it.”
Huffman added, “It was just a feeling, and I was like, ‘No, I’m good,’ and I stayed away.”
Kreuk, who played Lana Lang, was also involved with NXIVM briefly, but the Beauty and the Beast star denied any involvement in Mack’s wrongdoings.
“When I was about 23, I took an Executive Success Programs/NXIVM ‘intensive,’ what I understood to be a self-help/personal growth course that helped me handle my previous shyness, which is why I continued with the program,” Kreuk, now 39, wrote in a statement via Twitter in March 2018. “I left about five years ago and had minimal contact with those who were still involved.”
She added, “I am deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with NXIVM. I hope that the investigation leads to justice for all of those affected.”
In June 2021, Mack was sentenced to three years in prison for her involvement in the NXIVM, an alleged cult that engaged in sex trafficking and forced labor. Following her arrest in April 2018, the German-born thespian was released on $5 million bond and placed under house arrest at her parents’ home. She pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges in April 2019. She started her prison sentence in Dublin, California, in September 2021.
The Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves star apologized to the victims of NXIVM, which was founded as a self-help group by Keith Raniere in 1998. Former members alleged that a secret society called DOS was housed within the organization. Mack and Raniere were both arrested on charges related to DOS, whose members were allegedly called “slaves,” branded with Mack and Raniere’s initials and forced to provide potentially damaging material about themselves as “collateral” for entry into the group.
In June 2019, Raniere was convicted of all charges against him, including sex trafficking, identify theft, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. The following year, he was sentenced to 120 years in prison and fined $1.75 million.
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Ahead of her sentencing, Mack claimed that she now recognizes that following Raniere’s teachings was the “biggest mistake and greatest regret” of her life.
“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM,” Mack wrote at the time. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path.”
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