Smallville's season eight is already being worked on by the writers, thanks to an early pickup announcement by The CW Network. Brian Peterson, the show's executive producer, told SCI FI Wire a little bit about what fans can expect in the rest of season seven and in next year's season eight.

"We're always hopeful, and we always plan every year for a season finale, but it's really great when we get to tell one more year of Clark's story," Peterson said. "It's very early, and we really have to work in partnership with the studio, because right now we haven't presented anything to them," he added.

So what can fans expect from season eight? "The things I think I can hint at are the Lois & Clark of it all," he said. "It's really going to be a season about Lois [Erica Durance] and Clark [Tom Welling]."

The remainder of season seven, however, will focus on Lex's dark side, beginning with the April 17 episode Descent. "The rest of this season is, for the most part, about Lex finding what he's always been looking for," Peterson said. "Veritas [the last original episode to air] launched the next five episodes, which are all about Lex finding what he's been searching for."

The finale will set up the show's next season. "There's so much still to play," Peterson said. "People keep asking us all the time, 'When are you bringing in this character?' 'When are you doing this?' 'When are you doing that?' And we're like, 'We'll get there.' There're a lot of characters to service. So next year we have some real fun and clear ideas about what we're doing."

Smallville airs Thursday nights on the CW. The drama about the early days of Clark Kent stars Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristen Kreuk, John Glover, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Aaron Ashmore and Laura Vandervoot.