After his memorable stint on “Smallville,” where he met his wife, who was a casting assistant, Johnson went on to appear on “Falcon Beach” (ABC Family, 2005- ), “Criminal Minds” (CBS, 2005- ), “The Dead Zone” (USA, 2002- ) and “The Ghost Whisperer” (CBS, 2005- ). In “Flash Gordon,” Johnson’s lead character is a local athlete who discovers that his deceased father’s seemingly fruitless experiments with inter-dimensional doorways were in fact successful, and have opened a pathway to a mysterious planet ruled by the all-powerful Ming the Merciless, now bent on invading Earth.

Flash Gordon originally debuted as a comic strip and movie serial in the 1930s, and the character went through various incarnations, such as a world renowned polo player and a pro football superstar. Johnson, a self-professed “Star Wars” (1977) fanatic who loved to play make believe in the woods behind his house as a child, said he was drawn to the character mainly because he has no superhuman powers of his own and must fend his way through extraordinary circumstances by his own mental and athletic skills. As the latest re-imagining of a classic science fiction property, the Sci-Fi Channel series was notable for its slightly tongue-in-cheek point of view, as well as Johnson’s light comic timing.