It’s been about a year since the last time we heard anything about Krypton, the Superman prequel series that’s set on Kal-El’s home planet prior to his birth. While we would have figured that no news means development hell, if not a dead idea, it appears that the Krypton series has not exploded quite yet. Things are apparently moving forward, and while the series was inspired by the opening scenes of Man of Steel, don’t expect too much of the visual spectacle we saw in theaters. This is TV after all.
The executive producer of Krypton, David S. Goyer, who also wrote Man of Steel discussed with Collider the choices that you have to make when filming for TV as opposed to a major motion picture.
In terms of production value, you have to pick your moments. It will definitely, should we make the show, there will definitely be some big moments. It won’t be wall to wall visual effects every single moment, spectacle, in the way that the film will be, but we’ll also be digging into the characters and the culture a lot more.
The Krypton project is currently sitting at Syfy, and while they’re certainly capable of putting together some strong effects for their series, something like a TV Man of Steel is just not feasible week after week. In the end, this is probably a good thing for the series overall. While great special effects are always exciting to see, they can’t make a show successful on their own. By focusing on characters and culture, the creative team can make Krypton a strong show for the long haul, while adding some great sci-fi effects on top of it all.
All that being said, it’s hard to say how much the Krypton of the series will look like the one from the film anyway. According to Goyer, the series will be set 200 years before the planet’s explosion, during the time of Superman’s grandfather. The story will focus on a planet in disarray and how Grandpa Superman turns it into a planet of hope and equality. 200 years is a long time, even if Kryptonians do apparently live for ages. A series set 200 years in Earth’s past looks nothing like one set in modern day, so the same is probably at least somewhat true on the planet Krypton as well.
Goyer says we can “hopefully” expect an official update on the status of Krypton soon. Syfy has cancelled a couple of their other original series recently, so Krypton may be just what they’re looking for to fill some of the gaps.
