Lana Lang is a fictional character on the television series Smallville. A series regular from the pilot episode, she was played by Kristin Kreuk, with two other actresses portraying Lana as a child and as an elderly woman. The character was originally created for comic books by Bill Finger and John Sikela in the 1950s as a romantic interest for Superboy, and adapted for the show in 2001 by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Lana Lang has also appeared in various literature based on the television series.
In Smallville, Lana is the first love interest of Clark Kent, although she is dating Whitney Fordman in the first season. By season two, with Whitney's departure, Lana and Clark begin to grow closer. Clark's dishonesty over the secrets he is hiding causes their relationship to end. Lana then grows closer to Lex Luthor, whom she marries and divorces in the sixth season. Eventually Lana learns the truth about Clark and they get back together. After stealing a kryptonite-powered suit from Lex, Lana absorbs an enormous amount of kryptonite radiation, which prohibits her from getting too close to Clark, and she leaves Smallville for good, but vows to continue to use her powers to preserve life.
Initially, Lana is characterized as the intelligent "girl next door".Simpson, Paul, (Season 1 Companion), pp.116–119 She eventually becomes a tragic figure in Smallville, as the decisions made by Clark and Lex change the character over the course of the show. As Gough explains, by the end of the sixth season, Lana has shown that she can beat Lex at his own game. Over the course of the show, Lana transitions from the girl next door to a more "self-reliant young woman". Kreuk was nominated for various awards for her portrayal of Lana Lang.
Role in Smallville In the first season, Lana and Clark Kent (Tom Welling) are just beginning their friendship, as she is a popular cheerleader dating star quarterback Whitney Fordman (Eric Johnson), and Clark cannot get near her without getting sick from the kryptonite necklace she wears. In the pilot episode, when her parents are killed in the first meteor shower, Lana (Jade Unterman) is adopted by her aunt Nell (Sarah-Jane Redmond). As the first season progresses, Lana grows closer to Clark, while Whitney begins to distance himself because of his father's medical ailments. In season two's episode "Heat" Lana sends Whitney, who left Smallville for the Marines in the season one finale, a video message breaking up with him. Lana's aunt Nell moves to Metropolis with her fiancé in the season two episode "Ryan", but Lana opts to move in with her friend Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) so that she may finish high school in Smallville.
By the end of season two, Lana and Clark slowly try and start a romantic relationship, but fear backlash from Chloe because of her personal feelings for Clark. Just as the two give in to their feelings fully, Clark unexpectedly runs away from Smallville in the season two finale. At the start of season three, it is shown that Lana, alongside the Kents, has been spending her time searching for Clark; she ultimately finds him in Metropolis thanks to Chloe's help. Clark's actions in Metropolis force the two to rethink their relationship in the season three episode "Phoenix", and Lana eventually begins a new relationship with Adam Knight (Ian Somerhalder), whom she met while in physical therapy after being trampled by a horse in season three's "Asylum". By the season three episode "Crisis", it is discovered that the relationship Adam attempted to form with Lana was just a ploy so that Adam could investigate Clark.
Season three's "Forsaken" reveals that Lana, in order to move on with her life, applies and is admitted into a program to study in Paris, France. Season four shows that Lana, while in Paris, began a romantic relationship with Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles). At the beginning of season four, Lana returns to Smallville after receiving a mysterious tattoo on her lower back, which resembles a symbol on the local Kawatche cave walls, when she touched the tomb of Countess Margaret Isobel Theroux. In season four's "Spell" and "Sacred", the tattoo acts as a doorway for the spirit of Isobel to inhabit Lana's body; each time Isobel takes over Lana's body she sets out to find the three stones of knowledge, which are also being searched for by Clark and Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). In the season four finale "Commencement", Lana is confronted by Jason's mother Genevieve (Jane Seymour), who is also after the three stones of knowledge, and during a struggle Isobel comes forward and kills Genevieve. The resulting death of Genevieve, who was revealed to have been the cause for Isobel's death centuries prior in the episode "Bound", releases Isobel's control over Lana.
During the second meteor shower (in episode 88, "Commencement"), Lana witnesses the landing of an alien spacecraft, and two alien beings emerging and killing everyone in sight in the season five premiere. The spaceship becomes Lana's primary focus in season five, officially teaming up with Lex Luthor to discover the mystery behind the ship in the episode "Splinter". When her relationship with Clark hits a breaking point in season five's "Hypnotic", she begins to grow closer to Lex. The relationship with Lex eventually leads to marriage in the season six episode "Promise", but not before Lana discovers Clark's secret and realizes why he has been lying to her all these years. When she learns that Lex set up a fake pregnancy in order to get her to marry him in the season six finale "Phantom", Lana effectively ends the marriage and fakes her own death to escape Lex after he threatens her. She also frames Lex for her murder, to punish him for his betrayal. It is revealed at the start of season seven that her effort fails, but as part of the "settlement" of their divorce, Lex makes sure that Lana does not go to jail for her actions.
With Clark's secret no longer an issue, the two begin a real relationship in the season seven episode "Fierce". Lana becomes obsessed with making Lex pay for all his crimes against humanity, which causes her to develop the Isis Foundation, using $10 million she stole from Lex. The Isis Foundation is a counseling center for kryptonite-infected people, but it doubles as a front for Lana's surveillance on Lex. Her obsessions also begin to affect her relationship with Clark by the episode "Wrath". Eventually, Lana realizes that, even though she loves him, the only way for Clark to help the world to the best of his ability would be if she left Clark and Smallville for good, which she does in the season seven finale.
In the season eight episode "Bride", Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), believing he is tracking Lex Luthor who has been missing since the season seven finale, discovers Lana instead. Oliver convinces her to return to Smallville so that she can attend Chloe's wedding. In the season eight episode "Power", it is revealed that Lana really returned so that she could steal Lex's "Prometheus" technology for herself, which harnesses alien DNA into a nanite "super-suit" to give the wearer superhuman abilities. By the end of the episode, the procedure is complete, and Lana becomes just as strong and invulnerable as Clark. In the episode "Requiem", Lana discovers that her suit absorbs kryptonite, but also emits the radiation making her a potential danger to Clark. When Winslow Schott puts a kryptonite bomb on the roof of the Daily Planet under Lex's orders, Lana is forced to absorb all of the kryptonite to deactivate the bomb. As a result, she leaves Smallville to go on her own quest as Clark can no longer get near her without the kryptonite radiation hurting him.
Portrayal Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were initially trying to find someone for the role of Clark Kent, but Kristin Kreuk was the first to be cast, as Lana Lang. Casting director Coreen Mayrs sent David Nutter, the director of the pilot episode, a tape of 69 people and the second person on the tape was Kreuk. They loved her audition tape so much they immediately showed her to the network. For one of her auditions, she read the graveyard scene with Tom Welling; the network thought they had "great chemistry". Jade Unterman and Louise Grant portrayed the character as a child and an elderly woman, respectively.
At the time she was cast as Lana, Kreuk had no idea who the character was in Superman lore. Her uncle, who owned a comic book shop, filled her in on the details and she learned more from the producers. Kreuk realized that the character in the comics and her character on the show were two different people. As a result, Kreuk learned about the development of Lana as Lana is learning in the show, just as Welling does with Clark Kent.Simpson, Paul, (Season 1 Companion), pp.116-119 When asked if her being cast as a traditionally red haired character caused outcry from fans, Kreuk believes that whoever did "got over it pretty fast". By season three, Kreuk had decided to "invest" herself less in her character, as she felt that her character's ultimate development was entirely in the hands of the producers. She no longer became frustrated when the producers had Lana doing things that Kreuk felt were out of character, instead trusting that they would find the right direction for the character.Simpson, Paul, (Season 3 Companion) pp.116-119
Kreuk enjoyed the fourth season because it gave her the chance to stretch her acting abilities with Lana's storyline involving the spirit of Countess Margaret Isobel Thoreaux. According to the actress: "That was a lot of fun; I thought it was funny as well […] It really was wonderful to be able to stretch and play this driven woman who has a goal and is going to reach it, and in the meantime she's going to be sexy doing it. That was a lot of fun for me because the show sometimes isn't realistic so, as actors, we get to play with different types of things". Kreuk says her strangest moment on the show was playing a vampire in season five's "Thirst", an experience she remembers as "uncomfortable" due to the fake blood they covered her in.
Character development Storyline progression One of the early turning points for the character came in season one's "X-Ray", when Lana discovers information about her parents that changes her perspective on them. It began with her mother's graduation speech, which showed that her mother was not as happy as her aunt had led her to believe. Lana's perception of her mother drove the way she led her own life, which was based on the idea of everyone perceiving her in a good light. In season two, Lana discovers that her mother had had an affair with a man named Henry Small, and that he was her biological father. This continued the idea established in season one that Lana's perception that her parents were this perfect couple was wrong. According to Kreuk, meeting her biological father allowed the character to realize that she had to create her own life, as the one she had envisioned did not actually exist.