When Krypton was first formally announced all the way back in 2014, even the most devoted among us Superman fans questioned if such a series was entirely necessary. After all, the ten-year journey to becoming the Man of Steel that was Smallville (and the epilogue comics that followed) are still fresh in our memories, so why continue milking the prequel cow for all it’s worth when there are many other fine DC properties that are ripe for adaptation?
But when impressive footage such as what was shown last month at San Diego Comic-Con finds its way online, you can’t help but start to become more willing to see whatever it is that David S. Goyer and company are cooking up. By boasting feature film quality visuals and promising that we’ll see familiar villains such as Brainiac and Doomsday, it’s hard for us not to become the least bit intrigued.
Honestly, it’s the premise for the first season that I find to be most enticing. Basically, they’re taking a page out of the Terminator playbook and, according to lead actor Cameron Cuffe, a familiar villain existing in the present has hatched “a plot to prevent the world’s greatest superhero, Superman, from ever being born.” Not only that, but the man playing Big Blue’s biological grandpappy, Seg-El, assures that this series “branches time and space.”
Additionally, DC All Access also caught up with executive producer Cameron Welsh, who backed up those statements by saying, “time has shifted. The stakes of the show are about here and now.”
If anything, those teases guarantee that I’ll give Krypton a chance when it premieres on SyFy in 2018. Intermingling the DC Universe’s past with its present opens up a lot of storytelling potential, thus allowing for much more than a simple prequel that you already know the outcome to.