The ambitious Syfy series Krypton should be hitting television screens in 2018, and we are hyped! The series explores the doomed planet generations before there was even a Superman, and it stars Cameron Cuffe as Kal-El’s grandfather Seg-El.
We spoke with Executive Producer Cameron Welsh as part of a roundtable Q&A discussion at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, and he talked about many subjects that should expand our knowledge of the kind of show Krypton will be. Enjoy, and if you’d prefer to see it in video form, scroll down to the very end.
What can you tell us about Seg-El and how he might be similar to his grandson?
The thing about Seg-El is that, unlike Superman, obviously he’s on the planet of Krypton so he’s not under the yellow sun, so he doesn’t have those same powers. Superman is the quintessential hero; Seg, he’s not there yet. That’s his journey through life. He’s much more rough-and-tumble; he grew up on the streets, and his journey will be to become that hero.
What we’re looking to do throughout the series is put a number of moral dilemmas and challenges in front of him, where he could choose one path and if he did, maybe his grandson would grow up to be the Punisher. But he chooses this path, and his grandson grows up to be Superman.
So, he doesn’t start out that way. There’s a big journey for him to get there.
Why should we invest time watching Krypton when we know how it ends?
That’s a good question, and it’s a question I think a lot of people have had, but what we’re doing with this show is, it’s not so much a prequel, and it challenges that expectation.
We have a framing device for this show, where there’s a conspiracy — I wish I could tell you exactly who’s involved, but I’m not allowed — but there are people coming from present day Earth 2017, traveling back to Krypton of two hundred years ago to ensure that Superman is never born. So, the stakes of the show — the ending that you think you know, about the planet blowing up, that’s not that. We don’t know what the ending is going to be, because time has changed.
You say that now, but the final scene will be the planet blowing up.
I really don’t think it will be.
In the voiceover in the longer version of trailer (still not online), Seg-El mentions his grandson. Does Kara (Supergirl) not exist in this universe?
She hasn’t been born. This is two generations before Superman’s birth.
Are we going to see any familiar characters?
Absolutely. Yeah. And again, I wish I could expand on that, but what I’ll say is because of the framing device I was talking about, the time travel kind of aspect of it, it allows us to bring characters into this world that you wouldn’t expect to see. Characters that don’t really belong in Krypton 200 years before Superman’s birth. We have a very cool device that allows us to get them there.
Especially on the villain side of things, I think you’ll be seeing people on the show that I think DC fans are going to get very excited about. I’m excited about it!
What about villains that maybe were there 200 years ago, like Brainiac or the Eradicator?
Yeah. You might see villains from the past as well as the future.
What technical challenges have you had in producing the show?
From a production standpoint, with this show being set on this alien planet, it means that everything is a visual effect or a build. We can’t shoot on location, because we don’t want the show to look like Earth. It shouldn’t look like Earth. So that’s challenging.
RELATED: See the official Krypton teaser!
The design of the show, it’s beautiful, but it’s really ambitious. Our sets are massive, and there are so many visual effects required with this show. It’s challenging, technically, for sure.
What can you tell us about Val-El (Ian McElhinney)?
Val-El is Seg-El’s grandfather. He’s a mentor to Seg, but there has been an event that happens early on in the pilot that affects their relationship in a way, so there’s a lot of mending to be done. When we first meet Seg, he has been cast out of that upper class of Kryptonian society into the Rankless, and he’s spent the best part of his years growing up on the streets, so he’s kind of disconnected with the legacy of the House of El, and what it means, and what it stands for. He’s disconnected from that, so Val-El becomes really important. He’s the patriarch of the House of El, and he’s an important character in helping shape Seg in imparting the House of El legacy.
Can you talk about some of the sets we’re going to see?
We’ve got this massive backlot for the Rankless District. It’s like any other set that I’ve ever shot on before. It’s got winding streets… the way that the world is structured is that the Rankless live basically on the ground level, and these massive towers are where the Gilded, the former House of El, and the House of Zod… they all live up in these towers. Up there it’s all such a shining utopia, but on the streets, it’s grimy… it’s a struggle down there. They’re pretty cool sets.
Krypton premieres in 2018 on Syfy. Be sure to follow @KryptonSite on Twitter for updates about the show as it comes closer and of course, you can find all of our Krypton coverage here! Video of this interview can be found below.