Unlike Gotham, which is going down the Smallville route of exploring the origin of its young hero-to-be, DC’s latest prequel series Krypton is heading back two generations to focus on Superman’s grandfather Seg-El, long before the birth of Kal-El, and the destruction of his homeworld.
Speaking to Comic Book ahead of its premiere this coming week, showrunner Cameron Welsh has explained how the concept of the show is not just about exploring the past, but also delivering a story that impacts the present-day DC universe.
“There’s probably this notion that part of the audience goes, ‘Krypton, I guess that’s the show about the planet that Superman came from and that planet blows up so I kind of know how that story ends. Do I really need to watch this? I’ve lots of other things to do,'” said Welsh. “So the way we’ve sought to address that challenge is that in story and this is where, when we talk about DC’s involvement, not only in giving us access to everything we’ve got but Geoff Johns himself has been a part of the show and he’s a brilliant mind and has some brilliant ideas and very early on we talked about exactly that problem, about the prequel concern. The way we’ve addressed it in story, we have Adam Strange comes from present day Earth, arrives on Krypton to deliver this warning to Seg to let him know that history as we know it is under threat and somebody is coming to try and change the course of history, change the timeline, and prevent Superman’s birth. The show very quickly goes from being about this look into the past into a show that has stakes in the present day.”
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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.
