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"Krypton" coming to SyFy from David Goyer

Given that this is for Syfy, it will almost have to be a much simpler and more scaled down version of Krypton than we saw in MOS. Which would be a little strange considering this is supposedly Krypton at it's "height"...

I'm getting an image of something that looks a lot like the fairly recent Flash Gordon series set on Krypton.
 

On the one hand, that makes sense given Goyer's involvement, but on the other hand, it's surprising because every other current DC television project (including Supergirl) is independent of the MoS universe.

But it's got potential. The Krypton portions of MoS were some of its most successful elements. Heck, Jor-El was a more effective protagonist in MoS than Clark Kent was.


Given that this is for Syfy, it will almost have to be a much simpler and more scaled down version of Krypton than we saw in MOS. Which would be a little strange considering this is supposedly Krypton at it's "height"...

I'm reminded of the current Minority Report series. It does its best, but it's clearly operating on a much more limited budget than the movie. Hard to imagine how a TV series could pull off an entire alien world with a completely alien technology and architecture.



I'm getting an image of something that looks a lot like the fairly recent Flash Gordon series set on Krypton.

Syfy currently seems determined to invest more in classy productions and improve their reputation as a science fiction network. This might be more on the level of the upcoming The Expanse.
 
Yeah, Syfy seems to be really trying to up their SFF game this season. They've got the Expanse, The Magicians, Childhood's End and now this. They all look like they are trying pretty hard to be big budget, prestige programs. I'm looking forward to all of them.
I loved the Krypton portion of MOS, and knowing this is based off of that does interest me a lot more.
I read a different report on what appears to be the interview from the above link, and it sounds like Goyer is using some stuff he came up with MoS, but wasn't able to us in the movie. Could be cool.
 
Me too. I thought it was something that was already definitely happening.
 
And WATCHBOYS next year with young Rorscach.

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Eh, think it works in little bits and flashbacks, but what's the big story to tell in Krypton? It's a Superman story where the characters don't have super powers. Unless you spin it as some sort of tragic disaster epic where you know it ends badly for everyone...
 
Eh, think it works in little bits and flashbacks, but what's the big story to tell in Krypton? It's a Superman story where the characters don't have super powers. Unless you spin it as some sort of tragic disaster epic where you know it ends badly for everyone...

It's a chance to do a science fiction series developing the culture of an entire alien civilization. I find that potentially fascinating in itself. The Silver Age Superman comics gave Krypton a lot of development over the years, building it up into a pretty rich culture with a complex history. I doubt the show will use those specific concepts, but it shows that the history of an alien planet is a large canvas to paint on and is full of possibilities. And sure, they could just create an original SF series instead of making it about Krypton, but then it wouldn't have the name recognition as a hook for viewers. Like Caprica -- it was originally going to be a standalone series (with a different title, of course), but Syfy's execs decided it could work as a Battlestar Galactica prequel.
 
i wonder if it will turn out something like...
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^^^
This? ;)
 
Eh, think it works in little bits and flashbacks, but what's the big story to tell in Krypton? It's a Superman story where the characters don't have super powers. Unless you spin it as some sort of tragic disaster epic where you know it ends badly for everyone...

The main story is likely to be about a renowned scientist who loses his daughter in a terrorist attack but finds that she had uploaded a copy of her mind to their vr full immersion Internet. The seed of resentment in her digital mind will lead to the creation of a robot army.
 
The main story is likely to be about a renowned scientist who loses his daughter in a terrorist attack but finds that she had uploaded a copy of her mind to their vr full immersion Internet. The seed of resentment in her digital mind will lead to the creation of a robot army.

And said robot army is refered to as 'Braniacs' and her consciousness is uploaded to Braniac 5 ;)
 
There have been numerous times where something like this was announced and I wrote it off, only for it to end up being great, so I'm trying to keep an open mind.
 
It could be a good series but what's the point in setting it on Krypton? It will be a random sci-fi series with House of El crests slapped on the walls and costumes.
With no super powers and characters we know the same series could be set on the stargate earth in the 22nd century, just change the main character from Gramps-El to Greatgrandson O'Neill and you're done. Visually there won't be much of a difference between Krypton and future earth anyway, not on a tv budget.
 
It could be a good series but what's the point in setting it on Krypton? It will be a random sci-fi series with House of El crests slapped on the walls and costumes.

For one thing, name recognition to get people to watch a science fiction series they might not otherwise try out. Like I said, Caprica wasn't originally going to be in the Galactica universe.

For another, there's the drama of a story set on a world facing possible destruction. I gather they're going to stretch out the traditional narrative and have the danger of Krypton's doom become known to Jor-El's forebears. So the stakes of the series's conflicts will be nothing less than the fate of a world. Sure, we know the outcome of that, but we did with Caprica too.

And we don't know what other ideas they might have been able to draw on and build into a viable series premise. The fact that we don't know their plans doesn't mean they have none, just that different people can imagine different things.


With no super powers and characters we know the same series could be set on the stargate earth in the 22nd century, just change the main character from Gramps-El to Greatgrandson O'Neill and you're done. Visually there won't be much of a difference between Krypton and future earth anyway, not on a tv budget.

The Expanse has done a pretty good job of telling a story set mostly on alien worlds, stations, and ships. Then there was Sanctuary, where pretty much the entire series was shot with greenscreens and virtual sets. And if this is a prequel to Man of Steel as reported, it may be able to reuse costumes, props, physical and virtual set pieces, and digital cityscapes that were built for the movie, which would save money.

And just because they don't have powers, that doesn't mean they wouldn't have a distinct culture and technology that would be engagingly alien. Vulcans, Klingons, and Cardassians don't fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes, but that doesn't make them indistinguishable from Earth people. Plus, Kryptonians would have their own distinct technology. We know they have robots, antigravs, those neat animated display things from MoS, who knows what else?

Although even that depends on what version they draw on. Sure, the default explanation since maybe the '50s has been that Kryptonians only gain superpowers from exposure to Earth's yellow sun, but before that, the original idea was that Kryptonians' powers were innate because they'd evolved so much further than humanity. The first comics had said that Superman came from a race of supermen with powers dwarfing our own. In the 1940 radio series' premiere episode, there's a conversation where Jor-El explains to a surprised Lara that Earthmen "can only step three feet at a time at most" rather than being able to travel any desired distance across town in a single step as he and Lara can.

So if they wanted to, they could give the Kryptonians some powers different from human abilities. Although I don't think that's where they're going with this. It sounds like they're thinking more political-thriller soap opera in the Caprica vein than comic-book action.
 
It could be a good series but what's the point in setting it on Krypton? It will be a random sci-fi series with House of El crests slapped on the walls and costumes.
With no super powers and characters we know the same series could be set on the stargate earth in the 22nd century, just change the main character from Gramps-El to Greatgrandson O'Neill and you're done. Visually there won't be much of a difference between Krypton and future earth anyway, not on a tv budget.
I think the current inspiration comes from the success of Gotham, which is almost exactly what you're describing yet in a version of the Batman universe.
 
I think the current inspiration comes from the success of Gotham, which is almost exactly what you're describing yet in a version of the Batman universe.

No, that was Smallville. This is generations earlier on a different planet. There couldn't be any familiar Superman villains except maybe versions of Zod or Brainiac. Like I said, this feels more like Caprica.
 
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