For the upcoming tenth and final season of Smallville, the big bad was revealed at Comic Con to be Darkseid. Among other tidbits revealed: John Schneider will be returning for the show’s 200th episode. Also, star Tom Welling and Justin Hartley, who portrays Green Arrow, will both be directing episodes. Hartley will be in 17 episodes and Erica Durance will appear the entirety of the season as Lois. Allison Mack (Chloe) will be departing the show, but will reportedly be getting a “good sendoff.”
In its nine seasons so far, Smallville has been active in mining the Superman mythology for villains, both major and minor, to varying degrees of success. Recent main villains have included a resurrected Zod (actually a clone, played by Callum Blue), Brainiac (James Marsters), Bizarro (Welling in a dual role), and Doomsday (Sam Witwer). No word was mentioned as to who will be portraying Darkseid yet.