At this summer’s San Diego Comic-Con, fans learned that Syfy’s Superman prequel, Krypton, would have stronger ties to the wider DC universe than we thought, as Geoff Johns confirmed that the likes of Brainiac, Doomsday and Hawkwoman would make appearances on the show.
Now, the first of these characters has been cast. Deadline are reporting that Shaun Sipos (The Vampire Diaries, Melrose Place, Dark Matter) has signed up to play Adam Strange on Krypton, and they describe the character as so:
“A world-weary human, who finds himself stranded on Krypton as the unlikely mentor to Seg-El, Superman’s grandfather.”
Despite being a fairly obscure figure in DC history, Adam Strange dates back to 1958 in the comics. Originally an archaeologist, Adam was accidentally teleported to the planet Rann in the Alpha Centauri system, the first Earthling to set foot on another world. It’s a clever modernization of the character, then, to have Rann swapped out for Krypton instead.
As you surely know by now, the show focuses on Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), the man who will go on to become the grandfather of Kal-El. Set two generations before the planet’s destruction, it sees Seg attempting to rescue the reputation of the fallen House of El and save his world from the chaos that we know will eventually consume it.
We could be wrong, but we wonder if Adam’s role could be the time travel twist that’s been previously teased. Perhaps he’s travelled to Krypton from the future and so knows the planet’s destiny as well as that Seg’s grandson will go on to become Earth’s greatest hero? We might be way off the mark here, but it would add an extra dimension to both the character and the show, don’t you think?
Krypton is set to arrive on Syfy in 2018.