Eric Johnson only lasted a single season on the DC series Smallville as Whitney Fordman. A complex character with major impacts on some of Smallville's best episodes, Whitney was a star football player who was also in a relationship with Lana Lang. In this, the character initially functioned as an antagonist to Clark. The tension between them was set up in the series' pilot episode, where Whitney and the football team strapped Clark up to a cross in a cornfield as a prank. Using meteor rocks to do so, this prank almost became deadly for Clark.

Smallville ran for an incredible 10 seasons and continues to influence Superman depictions, including in the DC Universe. Many Smallville cast members came and went through this time, but Whitney was the first major character to be killed off. Not based directly on any comic book character, Whitney's journey from antagonist to friend was an emotional and effective one, that saw the bully softening and becoming friends with Clark after losing his father. At the end of season 1, Whitney left to join the Marines, and was killed in battle shortly after.

Smallville Showrunners Always Planned To Kill Whitney In Season 1

Whitney Was Almost Killed Off Before His Season 2 Death

The original plan was for Whitney Fordman to be killed in Smallville season 1. Eric Johnson recently appeared on the Smallville recap podcast Talk Ville, where he told hosts Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum about his departure from the series. Like plans with other characters, including Sam Jones III's Pete Ross, the producers weren't entirely forthcoming with the performers, largely because plans were constantly in flux. "I was the last to know a few times about what the plans were," Johnson said with a smile, before revealing that he found out partway through filming season 1.

While it was difficult at the time, Johnson - who later starred in Flash Gordon and the Fifty Shades of Grey films - seems to feel better about the experience now: "Getting to watch it with different eyes and a different lens now and looking at it with such love and adoration as opposed to at the time, it was a little bittersweet," he reflected on Talk Ville. As a series, Smallville went through several cast changes through the years, but each of these was calculated and intended to better strengthen the core relationships at its center, like Clark and Lana.

How Eric Johnson Found Out Whitney Would Be Killed Off In Smallville Season 2

Eric Johnson Found Out How Whitney Would Die With The Rest Of The Cast

Eric Johnson was among those like Laura Vandervoort who only lasted one season on the series. "I caught wind when we were shooting season 1 that they had talked about killing off Whitney in season 1, and then that got pushed back," Johnson said on the matter. The actor admitted that he was disappointed, but stated that he "kind of had an idea" that this type of plot could be incoming for the character before the conversations about it.

As for the story, Johnson found out about the details of his character's death along with everyone else in production: "In terms of Whitney’s fate, I didn’t know until I read the script," he said. In the series, his character goes off to fight in the Marines at the end of season 1. After a fakeout reappearance where Whitney seems to return but is actually Tina Grier, the character is killed in a battle in Indonesia. Despite this not reaching Lana, audiences are shown that he has written a letter to her accepting their breakup and allowing her to move on.

Why Whitney's Death Is So Important To Smallville's Storyline

Whitney Fordman Played A Crucial Role In Smallville

Unfortunately, Whitney Fordman was one too many tension points in the Clark and Lana relationship trajectory. Across the coming seasons of the series, there would be many additional walls or barriers to make their relationship difficult, and having the extra weight of Lana's first love continuing to hang around would have made things even more difficult. As a result, writing Whitney off of the series after season 1 was a necessary move.

Eric Johnson was a great performer in the series, but his relationship with Lana was already too significant, intimate, and complex. With the character's death, there is an allowance for grief and for moving on. If the character had remained alive, story action would have been needed to destroy the intimacy between Lana and Whitney in a way that would have allowed her to move forward. Doing so, however, would have risked also undoing much of Lana’s character development from season 1, where she spent a great deal of time learning to balance her relationship against her independence.

Running for such an extended period, Smallville was able to build and modify an incredible cast throughout the years. While excellent performers like Jensen Ackles, Sam Jones III, and Eric Johnson had limited runs on the show, these short appearances were majorly impactful. Smallville, however, was smart enough to recognize that changes to the cast were required throughout the years to build the Superman prequel story best. As such, Whitney Fordman was an excellent and much needed contribution to the series, even if this role was ultimately a short one.