We’re less than a week away from the premiere of the latest DC Comics-themed TV show Krypton, as Syfy takes us back in time to explore Superman’s homeworld two generations prior to Kal-El’s birth and the planet’s destruction. The series will revolve around the character of Seg-El, Superman’s grandfather, as he looks to restore the House of El to its former glories, and speaking to Comic Book, showrunner Cameron Welsh has been explaining what we can expect from the new show and its protagonist.
“We’re just peeling back a lot more layers than probably what we’ve seen before,” said Welsh. “When we’ve seen Krypton depicted in film before, it’s right before it’s about to explode. We probably don’t go deep into the culture. We don’t go deep into the way the society functions and the people that make it up. We get a bit of a sense of it. In most of the depictions, we touch on it but part of what’s exciting about doing this, we get to get really specific and get really detailed and really get into this world. Again, if this is the planet that birthed the greatest hero of all time, what made that world so special? Of course, we can say that part of what makes Superman Superman is his upbringing on Earth under Martha and Jonathan Kent but I think another part of it must be baked into his DNA, it must be something to do with being Kryptonian. So what is that? That’s part of what we explore in the show, what makes these people special? A lot of that is the House of El and the legacy of the House of El.”
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When we start our show, we see that Seg has become detached from that [legacy],” he continued. “Being cast out into the rankless, he’s disconnected from his past and from his legacy and that’s a bit of a journey for him to discover what that legacy is, what it means to be an El, what the Els have always stood for, and what he’ll learn. We saw a little bit of that in the fortress when we saw the windows and the stories of all the Els. He’ll learn that the Els have, for many, many generations, been woven into the fabric of Krypton and they’re part of what makes Krypton special. He’ll start to learn that he’s part of that lineage and so it’s part of what helps ignite him and push him into his hero’s journey. He realizes that … when we first meet him, he’s just a rank-less kid. He’s a street kid who’s running scams and a bit of a drifter, a bit detached, he’s aimless and has no sense of identity, so sense of purpose. That’s the journey that we’ll go on with him as he discovers who he is and what he wants to do.”
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Set two generations before the destruction of Superman’s home planet, KRYPTON follows Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), the legendary Man of Steel’s grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed. With Krypton’s leadership in disarray, Seg-El encounters Earthly time-traveler Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) who warns he’s under the clock to save his beloved world from chaos. Fighting to redeem his family’s honor and protect the ones he loves, Seg is also faced with a life and death conflict – save his home planet or let it be destroyed in order to restore the fate of his future grandson.
KRYPTON is from Warner Horizon Scripted Television and is executive produced by David S. Goyer (“Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “The Dark Knight Trilogy”) through his Phantom Four banner, alongside Cameron Welsh, who serves as showrunner. In addition to Cuffe and Sipos, the show also stars Georgina Campbell (“Broadchurch”), Elliot Cowan (“Da Vinci’s Demons”), Ann Ogbomo (“World War Z”), Rasmus Hardiker (“Your Highness”), Wallis Day (“Will”), Aaron Pierre (“Tennison”) and Ian McElhinney (“Game of Thrones”). Based on the DC characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, KRYPTON premieres March 21st, 2018 on SYFY.
