Past Episodes Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Your topic to discuss up to S02.E04. From episode 5 on please see the forum for episode topics.

[Kromm]

Call this an anti-anticipation. David S. Goyer was responsible for a great movie called "Dark City" once. He's been bolstered on the rep from that since. Oh, he did okay with his part in some Batman films, but clearly anything Superman-related flips a "shit" switch in his brain (and pen) and that's all that comes out. 

 

It's kind of a bit of a slap to the face to "Supergirl" too. I mean the guy who co-wrote Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman getting the call over them.  And if this isn't in the current DC movie universe (but earlier of course), then it will be YET ANOTHER alternate universe. 

 

Maybe we could argue this is the chance to see how much of the shit is coming from Zach Snyder vs. David Goyer. Can we pin our hopes on that?

[MarkHB]

So far, all we have is a nearly-finalized pilot order, and it's taken 2 years to get that far.  Here's the rundown on the creatives:

 

• Goyer wrote the story and script with Ian Goldberg, who was story editor on FlashForward and a producer on OUAT.
• The showrunner will be Damian Kindler, who just came off 3 years on Sleepy Hollow and also created Sanctuary. Goyer and Kindler are reworking the script now.
• Colm McCarthy will direct the pilot.

 

Based on DC Comics characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and by special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family, Krypton is set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet. It follows Superman’s grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed — as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.

 

(For those who haven't closely tracked the details, "by special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family" is current DC boilerplate following all the court settlements with them.)

 

I'm assuming that, like Gotham, it's going to be far enough removed time-wise from the other shows that which universe it's in won't come up.  They won't have the budget to make it look like MoS Krypton, anyway, and the 70's Space Age version we've seen on Supergirl (you just know the kitchen appliances are burnt orange) wouldn't match the Syfy esthetic.

[Kromm]

• Goyer wrote the story and script with Ian Goldberg, who was story editor on FlashForward and a producer on OUAT.
• The showrunner will be Damian Kindler, who just came off 3 years on Sleepy Hollow and also created Sanctuary. Goyer and Kindler are reworking the script now.

None of those credits really reassure me all that much. I suppose OUAT has had some charm, but it's also a mess too. FlashForward definitely was a mess. Sanctuary was a nice lesson on how to make a show on a really low budget, but not many people would actually call it good. Sleepy Hollow had a fairly decent first season, admittedly, but I think the general feeling is it went to shit after that.  So are we looking at Krypton having perhaps a really nice start and going to shit? Can't say that fills me with enthusiasm. Especially if a lot of the shit we've seen in the Synderverse movies is due to Goyer rather than just Snyder.  But we shall see, I suppose.

[legaleagle53]

Well, at least we know how the series will end -- with a bang!

Edited April 24, 2016 by legaleagle53

[Kromm]

Well, at least we know how the series will end -- with a bang!

Hmm. Did it really help to know how Caprica would end?

[MarkHB]

On 4/23/2016 at 11:10 AM, MarkHB said:

So far, all we have is a nearly-finalized pilot order, and it's taken 2 years to get that far.

FYI: the above link has been updated and the pilot order is official.

[MarkHB]

I didn't think to search until now, but TVLine ran a list of the main cast members last month.  Production on the pilot is due to begin in Montreal later this summer.

[MarkHB]

Deadline has an update: Georgina Campbell will be playing the female lead, Lyta Zod.  Also, the pilot will be filmed in Serbia, not Montreal.

[MarkHB]

This is from shortly after the Georgina Campbell announcement; it's a long MoviePilot piece thinking about the show.  Pure speculation on the author's part I'm sure.

[MarkHB]

Variety is reporting that Syfy has cast the lead for the show...

Quote

British newcomer Cameron Cuffe has been cast in the starring role of Seg-El. Destined to be the ancestor of Jor-El, the future father of Superman, and Kal-El, the future Superman,, Seg-El is the scion of the once prosperous El family and is blessed with an intuitive brilliance for all things technical. He is now living in Krypton’s lowest caste after his family was stripped of its rank.

[MarkHB]

Deadline had the remaining castings a couple of weeks ago (this is a re-edit, using largely their words).

Game of Thrones’ Ian McElhinney will play Val-El, grandfather of Seg-El. He is a rogue genius who believes that space exploration is a basic form of self-defense.

Da Vinci’s Demons alum Elliot Cowan is Daron Vex, the Chief Magistrate of Kandor.

Ann Ogbomo (World War Z) will play Primus Alura Zod, Lyta Zod’s mother and a leader of Krypton’s military guild.

Rasmus Hardiker (Your Highness) will portray the rankless Kem, who is a brilliant engineer as well as Seg-El’s best friend and partner in an underground tech-repair business.

Wallis Day (The Royals) will play Nyssa Vex, a junior magistrate and the daughter of Daron Vex.

Aaron Pierre (Tennison) is Dev-Em, a cadet under the command of Primus Alura Zod.

[The Crazed Spruce]

Huh. Wasn't expecting them to bring in an established character like Dev-Em.

[MarkHB]

First trailer has been released!    Still no official series order, but it looks good.

 

[MarkHB]

This has been picked up for series!

[MarkHB]

With Game of Thrones winding down, Krypton will be filming in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Also, here is the official Syfy page for the show.

[Trini]

Krypton at Comic Con:

Quote

PILOT SCREENINGS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19

6:00-10:00 p.m. Special Sneak Peek Screenings -

Ballroom 20

· Krypton: Set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel's home planet, Krypton follows Superman's grandfather (Cameron Cuffe) - whose House of El was ostracized and shamed - as he fights to redeem his family's honor and save his beloved world from chaos.

Based on DC characters, 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, along with Damian Kindler and Cameron Welsh. Krypton is based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, published by DC, and will debut in 2018 on SYFY.
Follow the show on Twitter at @KryptonSYFY.

Panel:

Quote

SATURDAY, JULY 22

1:15-1:45 p.m. Krypton Special Video Presentation and Q&A -

Join series star Cameron Cuffe (The Halcyon, Florence Foster Jenkins) and executive producers Damian Kindler (Sleepy Hollow) and Cameron Welsh (Ash vs Evil Dead, Constantine) for a sneak peek at the upcoming series followed by an out-of-this-world Q&A. 

Indigo Ballroom

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2017/06/29/warner-bros-television-group-lets-the-dogs-out-along-with-20-fan-favorite-series-all-heading-to-san-diego-for-comic-con-international-july-19-23-418215/20170629wbt01/

[Trini]

Comic Con trailer description.

[Trini]

It's misleading to call this a trailer since it's only 20 seconds long; but SyFy has released a teaser with new footage:

[Adira]

Wow, that teaser makes it look pretty cool!

[MarkHB]

Lots more news in this piece recapping the panel... SPOILERS even in the URL!

[MarkHB]

DC All Access piece promoting the show...

[BetterButter]

‘Krypton’: Shaun Sipos To Play Adam Strange In Syfy Superman Prequel Series

[MarkHB]

Krypton started filming last week:

[Trini]

Teaser:

Edited December 12, 2017 by Trini

[Trini]

New description, and a March 2018 premiere date:

Quote

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.

http://www.kryptonsite.com/krypton-new-series-description-possible-syfy-premiere-date/

[Trini]

Premiering March 18th.

[Trini]

Actual trailer! and there are promo pics out for the premiere:

 

More here: http://www.superherohype.com/news/410109-the-full-krypton-trailer-is-here#/slide/1

[Trini]

We'll see how things play out, but I'm not a fan of the lead getting an info dump from the future. This looks interesting, but I hope it doesn't go off the rails (IMO) like Gotham's prequel mythology.

[Trini]

Reports and quotes from the SYFY panel at the TCA press tour: *Spoilery* bits about upcoming characters and arcs.

EW:

Quote

“He’s an unlikely hero,” Johns says of Adam Strange. “He’s the unlikely choice of shouldering this burden of trying to stop someone from the present trying to prevent this Superman legacy… Adam Strange is a character that doesn’t really embody what Superman does as far as honor and justice, doesn’t really know right from wrong, but looks up to Superman.”

Adds executive producer Cameron Welsh: “Adam Strange gets to become a proxy for the audience in a lot of ways. He’s the fish out of water in this alien world.”

Nerdist:

Quote

“There’s been a lot of stories in the comic books about Krypton that we do derive inspiration from, but the time travel element does give us an unpredictability and some creative license to do stories that we don’t know stories that could play out differently than what people might assume,” Johns says. “The door is open for anything.”

TV Guide:

Quote

"Because it starts so far back in time, a lot of the characters that maybe are familiar to some of the comic book fans, they're in their genesis stage, so you get to come in at the ground floor," Welsh told TV Guide. "I think a lot of people will come to this show for various different reasons, whether they're DC fans, or sci-fi fans, or for whatever reason, but ultimately it will come down to one thing that will keep people staying and that will be characters." In that sense, says Welsh, it's like meeting characters for the first time.

Deadline:

Quote

It’s a “privilege” to play Superman’s grandfather, Cuffe told TV critics, saying “the pressure keeps you grounded, humble.”

Before telling Cuffe he had the role, they gave him The Talk, EP David Goyer said, asking if he was “prepared for that responsibility” of representing the Superman lineage, on camera –  and off.

KryptonSite - 'Ten Things From The TCA Panel':

Quote

Post-production time for Krypton is almost double that of the average hour-long show. The VFX budget is huge.

...

On Krypton the “S” (the symbol of the House of El) is a symbol of shame. They’re outcasts. The core of the show is that the symbol will someday again mean something.

Seg-El isn’t the most mature or heroic character when we first meet him. “The entire show is him growing as a person to fill that symbol,” Cuffe says. ...

The Wrap -'Why ‘Krypton’ Is Filmed in the UK, Not Vancouver':

Quote

“Specifically, you know the main reason is and this will sound kind of funny, but there’s this, I think when people think of fantasy or science fiction when you think of accents, for whatever reason, the Mid-Atlantic or British accent is the default accent when you’re dealing with an alien world,” Goyer said during the “Krypton” panel at the Television Critics Association on Tuesday.

“And more recently, you’ve seen Jor-El played by someone who wasn’t American,” Goyer continued. “It just seemed appropriate and I also knew that when we were shooting, you know, even people who are 20th on the call sheet have gone to the Royal Shakespeare Academy. So there’s an incredible history of acting talent, you know, over in the UK. ...

...

“It also has such a different look from lots other superhero shows out there that were shot in Vancouver, and we wanted this to have a really different specific look,” Jones says. “So you’ll see cityscapes that you wouldn’t normally see.”

[SimoneS]

Everytime I see the promo for this show, I yell, "dude, don't just stand there, hop on a ship and fly away! Your family is going to die painfully on an exploding planet in a couple of generations."

Edited January 14, 2018 by SimoneS

[Trini]

About the production design for Krypton (and how it relates to the themes and story they are telling):

Quote

Given the fact that the show would be taking us into parts of Krypton we rarely see, like living quarters, hangouts, and military bases, production designer Ondrej Nekvasil and the show’s producers had to establish some basic facts for the planet when it came time to design the show’s world, i.e. the sets. For example: What kind of planet is Krypton? What materials does it have? How would it compare to Earth? Is it ornate and architectural, or one that places more emphasis on surroundings being functional?

“We were trying to create a world that was believable,” Nekvasil tells EW. “The key thing is that on Krypton, all of the people on Krypton look like people on Earth. So, the scale of the set and the scale of the spaces has to be similar to what we know because the people live there.”

He continued, “Because life on the planet is kind of tough, they don’t do designs. If they make something, it’s because they use it and they would like to use it for life. It’s not because they would like to design something. We were trying to stay away from the over-design, over-dressed rooms. We were trying to show that everything has some kind of practical reason for why it’s there.”

 

 

Has more photos and sketches at the link.

[MarkHB]

There's always a practical reason for a bar :) .

[Trini]

Casting news; Hannah Waddingham Cast As Jax-Ur.

[MarkHB]

New trailer; they're really leaning into the comics stuff now.

[Trini]

First look at Brainiac, plus posters for several Houses of Krypton (with some silly, punny taglines) in the same gallery.

[MarkHB]

Brainiac looks freaking AWESOME.

[MarkHB]

Trailer #2:

[Trini]

Krypton at WonderCon:

Quote

Q&A Panels with The 100, Black Lightning, Krypton, Teen Titans Go! and Unikitty!, Plus a New Episode of Lucifer and the World Premiere Screening of Constantine on WonderCon Weekend in Anaheim March 23-25

Quote

Stars and producers scheduled to attend WonderCon 2018 include:

· Krypton stars Cameron Cuffe, Georgina Campbell and Shaun Sipos along with executive producer Cameron Welsh and DC Entertainment's Dan Evans.

Quote

Saturday, March 24

2:00-3:00 p.m. Krypton Special Video Presentation and Q&A - ...

Join showrunner and executive producer Cameron Welsh (Ash vs. Evil Dead), DC Entertainment executive Dan Evans, and stars Cameron Cuffe (The Halcyon), Georgina Campbell (Black Mirror) and Shaun Sipos (Melrose Place) as they provide exclusive insight into this highly-anticipated new series from executive producer David S. Goyer, Warner Horizon Scripted Television, DC Entertainment and SYFY. Krypton premieres March 21 and airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on SYFY.

Room North 200A

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2018/02/28/warner-bros-television-announces-wondercon-2018-schedule-100212/20180228wbt01/

[Trini]

http://fanofsteel.syfy.com

[MarkHB]

Quote

Superman's grandfather, Seg-El, learns Krypton is in danger of being destroyed so that his future grandson will never be born.

[Lantern7]

Comic shops are offering a free comic in anticipation of Krypton. Basically, it's a reprint of World of Krypton #1, the start of a four-issue miniseries from John Byrne and Mike Mignola (who would create Hellboy). I think the story was written after Crisis on Infinite Earths, depicting the revised version of the planet Krypton. I also believe there were two other miniseries in the same vein: World of Smallville and World of Metropolis. I got WoK from a DC Comics harcover reprinting Mignola's work, and I think it holds up well.

ETA: Story from Bleeding Cool. Also, the issue has brief profiles of four of Krypton's esteemed Houses.

Edited March 16, 2018 by Lantern7

[RandomWatcher]

I think it has potential and with X-Files thankfully over, I have a bit of extra room to watch it.

[mxc90]

I'll watch but the plot of Adam Strange going back in time to tell Seg about pending doom, Superman, Earth/Detroit and give him the sun stone cheapens this story. I'd rather see Seg learn what is to come on his own or from his parents.

[MarkHB]

27 minutes ago, mxc90 said:

I'll watch but the plot of Adam Strange going back in time to tell Seg about pending doom, Superman, Earth/Detroit and give him the sun stone cheapens this story. I'd rather see Seg learn what is to come on his own or from his parents.

Well, he gave him the sun stone and the totally-not-lame-gimmick of Superman's cape disappearing like it's in a photo of the McFly family, but most of the rest of what he learned came from his mother.

I do wish that Adam Strange wasn't dressed like some cooler guy's wingman at an Eminem concert, though.

[tennisgurl]

See, I thought Adam Strange looked like every guy trying to scalp tickets at a hockey game in the parking lot.

Well, after I got over my annoyance with adds for this show popping up during The Magicians, I thought this was quite good. The landscapes and art direction are interesting, and the actors all seem engaging. I especially like Segs new arranged fiance, and I like that, even though they are clearly setting him up with an epic doomed romance with the security chick, they seem to be setting her up to be sympathetic, and they seem to get along.

Wow, pillow talk in Krypton wasn't exactly sizzling, was it? Also, this has sure been an eventful couple of days for Seg, huh? Stops a terrorist, gets married into the family of the guy who screwed his whole family over, got a new job, found out he has some whole crazy secret past/future legacy, meets some weirdo from the future from a planet he hasn't heard of, kind of has a kid, and loses his parents. Like, maybe take a personal day. 

Is it time to start an "obvious homage to a famous Superman thing" drinking game? 

[Mysteyman]

I liked it but all  that technology  and they have the same leather jackets same tank tops and apparently the same curse words as earth?

SERIOUSLY?

[HunterHunted]

29 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

they are clearly setting him up with an epic doomed romance with the security chick

Lyta LeStrange Zod

Newt Scamander: "Ermm...ahhh...ugh...Hugh Grant noises...ahhh...genteel English stammering...b...b...b...but I thought I was supposed to be the one with the doomed romance with a Black woman from what will be an antagonistic family."

[GaT]

I just saw a trailer for this. I don't plan on watching it, but something seems weird. I don't know what episode it's from, so I'm going to put it in spoiler tags

Spoiler

Some guy is talking to another & says something like he's come from the future to tell them to save Superman. His name wasn't Superman on Krypton, it was Kal-El. They wouldn't have any idea who Superman was. It makes no sense.

[steelyis]

Better than The Inhumans, I guess.

I remember Cameron Cuffe from an episode of the swiftly cancelled Time After Time and I thought he gave a decent performance so I know he can act, but he did nothing to elevate the threadbare, cliched rebel bad boy, Seg. Who is so bland and charmless I can't imagine him holding my attention for an entire season. I liked his parents though.

The actor playing Daron-Vex gave a shaky performance made all the more glaring when he acted opposite Ann Ogombo who is magnetic whenever she's on screen, making him seem more generic officious bad guy clinging to power than I think the show is going for.

Now Jayna-Zod and Nyssa-Vex are intriguing (barring Nyssa's baffling interest in Seg). Jayna mercy killing the El parents gave her character depth I was not expecting from a woman named Zod who stabs her daughter to make a point. While Nyssa gives the impression she's playing the long game in a system she doesn't have the power to resist or control... yet.

Krypton could work if it was about the Zod and Vex.