Tom Welling: Playing Superman on 'Supergirl' would be 'odd'

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Tom Welling isn't sure he'd jump at the chance to play Superman on Supergirl.

The 38-year-old actor discussed the possibility of appearing on the CBS series in an interview with Buzzfeed published Tuesday. Welling played Clark Kent, aka Superman, on The WB/CW drama Smallville, but said he's lost sight of the character.

"There's people who would like it... there's people who don't like it, but I will tell you that no one has ever actually asked me to do it," the star was later quoted on Twitter. "So, I don't know. It would be kind of odd. I don't know who [Clark] is at that point. He would obviously be Superman."

Smallville saw a teenage Clark develop and embrace his powers over the course of a 10-season run from 2001 to 2011. Supergirl also begins with a young Kara Danvers, cousin to Superman, discovering and exploring her abilities before becoming Supergirl.

"It's a compliment," Welling said of the many superhero series presently on the air. "I'm very proud of shows like Arrow [and] The Flash ... They're able to ground these characters so that the viewer can relate on a human level to people who used to be only in two dimensions."

Daniel DiMaggio will reportedly play a young Kal-El, aka Superman, in a flashback on the Feb. 8 episode of Supergirl. Some fans expect an adult version of the character, possibly played by Welling, to team up with Supergirl in future episodes.

Welling will next appear in an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel The Choice starring Benjamin Walker and Alexandria Daddario. He also created, developed, executive produced and starred in a pilot called Section 13 under consideration at CBS.