Michael Rosenbaum (aka Lex Luthor) Leaving Smallville

If bad guys make the show, then Smallville could be in trouble. Michael Rosenbaum has confirmed that next season will be his last as Lex Luthor. Will next season also be the last for Smallville? Rosenbaum has done things with the Lex Luthor role that no other actor has, and perhaps no other actor could. It's hard to imagine Smallville without him.

Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor debuted on screen just one month after the tragic September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was October 2001 when Smallville first appeared on television - then the WB, now CW. Smallville traces the life of a teenage Clark Kent who wrestles with his alien identity, discovers new powers, and tries to keep it all a secret - while also learning how to just...well...be a man.

The series opened with Clark Kent saving Lex Luthor from certain death in a terrible automobile accident - an act that forged a friendship doomed to fail. Luthor was mesmerizing as an earnest, young billionaire trying to get out from under the controlling, shadow of his estranged, yet protective father. Lionel Luthor was the Big Bad Dude for the first couple of seasons, with Lex on the tightrope -- deciding which direction to go (Good or Bad). Sounds a lot like Star Wars, I know. But that's about right. Would Lex choose the Light Side or the Dark Side?

Well, over time, Lex's path has taken a darker turn to where he is now, without any doubt, the series villain. And his friendship with Clark has of course long since fractured. To complicate matters, however, Lex has found what appears to be true love in the arms of Clark's ex-girlfriend (and so far, only real love), Lana Lang.

Rosenbaum's complex portrait of Lex Luthor has lifted the cultural iconic villain to new artistic heights. In Rosenbaum's hands, Luthor is not the cardboard cut-out villain of yesteryear's Superman serials, nor the over-the-top, for-laughs version given us by Gene Hackman in the 1980s Superman movies. No, Lex Luthor has emerged as one of the most interesting villains ever to appear on television. And, well, that's coming to an end.