Superman & other Super Hero Posters

Smallville: Reckoning   John Schneider   Jonathan Kent Fan Art Tribute
The Death of Jonathan Kent  
Reckoning aired January 26, 2006

The date that will live in Smallville infamy, January 26 will be forever the date that Jonathan Kent passed away on the episode, The Reckoning.

John Schneider apparently knew it was coming for quite a while.  In an interview with Zap2it  he said he was grateful for the advance notice the "Smallville" producers gave him, as it allowed him to field projects for next season through his production company, Johnenelly. But it also meant he had to keep Jonathan's death secret from the rest of the cast, who didn't find out about it until shortly before  Reckoning began filming.

Even he was fooled into thinking Lana would be the one to die before he finished reading the entire script, thinking he might not die after all.

In an interview with SCI-FI Wire Schneider said  that he was sorry to leave the show behind, but that he used those emotions in his final scenes with Welling. "It was very sad, which helped," Schneider said. "It really, really helped. The last scene I shot was pulling Clark out of the car when Lana had passed. ... I worked until 3:30 in the morning and it was probably 18 degrees. It was cold out there. But the last thing I did was that with Tom, which I think is very appropriate. The very last thing Jonathan Kent does in the show is tell him it's not his fault. So he's trying to protect him. The very last thing John Schneider did was pull Clark out of the vision of seeing Lana dead."

Schneider also said he had hoped his character wouldn't die until later on in the season like episode 23 or so.

John takes his character's demise in stride saying,  that he understands the need for his character to die in order for Clark to move forward toward his destiny as Superman. "It happens for great reasons," he said. "He's trying to live up to his father's expectations, or trying to fill the gap that was left, fill the void that was left by the death. The passing of Jonathan Kent in Clark Kent's life is, I think, what causes him to become Superman. Not just somebody with super powers. ... To me it was like John Wayne in The Cowboys, an empowering death, which is so important. Because if Jonathan Kent had just died, that would have been terrible. It would have been meaningless.

Who is Jonathan going to miss most?  He says none other than Smallville's star Tom Welling. "We have a really remarkable relationship with regard to the father-son thing," Schneider says. "We're peers in many respects, but when you really get down to it, the relationship you see on 'Smallville' is very much like the relationship we have."

Have any tributes to Jonathan Kent send them to superherouniverse@yahoo.com

Find out these images below of the Fortress of Solitude and Jonathan were indeed meant to be in the 100th episode, but Al Gough just felt it was too much. He told Kryptonsite.com, " It was something that sounded great on paper, but ultimately it seemed a little awkward and a little morbid." 

These images I had assumed might possibly be used later to bring Jonathan back in a future episode. Perhaps, I thought Clark would go back in time again, but this time Jor-El would save Jonathan at the Fortress. Looks like I was wrong.

Talk about it on the message board

Check out the Superman encyclopedia

Aerolectric made this image in tribute to Jonathan Kent. One of them is in English and the other in Kryptonian.