Krypton (2018) s01e00 Episode Script

1 The thing that I love about Superman is, no matter how dark or cynical the world gets, he always is hopeful and heroic and optimistic.
He's a blue sky superhero.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
He's a man who could do anything, and he's choosing to fight for us.
When Superman wins the day, you feel like you won the day.
I think every major creator at some point wants to tell a Superman story.
"Krypton" to me is such a vibrant idea because there's so little that's been explored.
To be a part of something that's just got such a massive legacy to it, it's very surreal.
Hi, I'm Cameron Cuffe from the new show "Krypton," and right now, I'm in Belfast, standing on our version of the Fortress of Solitude.
It's the 80th anniversary of Superman and the origin of Krypton, and as an actor and fan, I couldn't be more excited to be part of this next chapter.
One of the things that I wanted to do with "Man of Steel" was to emphasize the fact that Superman was an alien, and so I fought very hard to have an opening segment take place on Krypton and to depict it as a truly alien world.
So while I was working on that film, I thought a lot about how we could take things further, and I approached Geoff Johns.
It really started with a conversation when David came to me and said, "Hey, I think I have an idea about a story on Krypton," how the House of El became this symbol of hope and optimism.
It's about this character, Seg, who's the grandfather of Superman, and it would take place about 200 years before Superman comes to Earth.
Superman came from a very sophisticated world.
They were very advanced, but at the same time, beyond this sort of veneer of harmony, there was corruption.
There was Machiavellian politics going on.
I think it's something that speaks to us in our world today.
I think that's the big draw to "Krypton," to dive deeply into what Krypton is.
What was it like before Superman, as a baby, left that world and the world was destroyed? [MELANCHOLY PIANO MUSIC.]
The Krypton of our show is a planet that is late in its life cycle, and resources are so limited that there are only a certain amount of people that the government seems to care about.
The society's divided by class.
It's a theocracy.
There's an authoritarian, religious ruler.
Rao's blessings are bountiful but not unlimited.
Only his wrath is.
Seg is a son of the House of El, which has had its once proud legacy ripped from them when Seg's grandfather, Val-El, commits heresy by saying that there is something out there other than Kryptonians.
For rebelling against the lawful authority of the Holy Sovereignty of His Eminence, you are hereby sentenced to death! When we pick up our story, the House of El has been maligned.
The Superman symbol is a mark of shame.
Your family will be stripped of all rights and privileges! You are now to be considered rankless! He grows up rankless in the rankless district, which is this crevasse at the bottom of the city where people are just sort of piled in on top of each other.
It's a dog-eat-dog world.
- Move along.
- Hey! His mind's not right anymore.
Seg's a good kid, who's very angry at the world.
[GRUNTING.]
We didn't want to start Seg as the finished package.
You know, we didn't want him to be Superman.
We didn't want him to have all of those core values in place right from the start.
We wanted that to be the journey, and we wanted that to be a progression.
What the hell were you thinking, Seg? Are you gonna uncuff me or what? I like you this way.
Even though "Krypton's" very much a story about the House of El and the El lineage, it's also a story about the House of Zod and the Zod lineage.
Lyta, you are my daughter, and you are a Zod, and Zods are not traitors.
Lyta Zod, she's part of the Military guild.
She has this relationship with Seg, which is not allowed.
She shouldn't be going near a rankless.
So much in our lives we can't control.
But we still get to define ourselves.
Seg is someone that she can speak to.
They're really in love, and they have this really passionate relationship, but they know that it's never gonna last because they're both bound to different people.
He's bound to Nyssa.
Nyssa here is yet to be paired with someone.
As my youngest daughter, you'll be binding with her.
She's the woman that Seg is bound to.
They don't call it marriage, they call it a binding.
He takes an immediate disliking to Nyssa, and she to him.
If my father binds you to us, he is taming you.
Proving that even a dreaded El can be co-opted and brought into the fold.
Nyssa-Vex is a junior magistrate of the Lawmaker's guild.
I think a lot of Nyssa's relationships are built on an agenda, and Nyssa sees Seg as a commodity.
Have your secrets, Seg.
I most certainly have mine.
Seg early on in the story receives a call to action, and this call reminds him of the great legacy of his house, of the acts of courage and selflessness that are so incredible that they resound through history, but here's the kicker: they also resound in the future.
[GRUNTS.]
Don't even think about it.
This stranger shows up, says, "I'm from the future.
"I'm from a planet called Earth.
"My name is Adam Strange, and I need your help to save Krypton.
" Someone from the future has come to destroy Krypton.
Why would they do that? Because where I'm from, your grandson becomes the greatest hero in the universe.
No one on Krypton, including Seg, has any awareness of Superman or even Earth at this point, so Adam is the audience's proxy.
Once this cape is gone, our time's up.
Superman will have been wiped from existence.
Because he is a time traveler, he shows that the show is not just a prequel.
It's a story that is indelibly linked to the present, so the events that happen in our show could change Krypton's ultimate fate.
[BOY YELLS.]
This thing that's coming, it moves from planet to planet, conquering civilizations.
Its true name is Brainiac.
Superman was created out of nothing.
There were no superheroes.
Superman has been through everything you can think of.
There's a reason why Superman still persists.
So, here we are in the Genesis Chamber, and the cool thing about the Genesis Chamber is that it's actually a relatively new part of the lore introduced in 2014's "Man of Steel.
" And the amazing thing to me as a fan is that even though this franchise has been going on for 80 years, the world of Krypton is so rich that there's really no end to the creative and storytelling possibilities.
There's a lot of characters that have been introduced from 1938 to now, and a lot of them have been forgotten, but there's a reason why Superman still persists.
Superman was created out of nothing.
There were no superheroes.
There was just Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in Cleveland, Ohio, creating an alien character called Superman.
In 1938, in short, the world had never been a scarier or more unjust place.
And at that time, the world's first superhero appeared on bookshelves.
I don't think it's a coincidence that this guy became popular.
He's always that shining beacon of goodness and courage.
Truth, justice, and the American way I mean, these are, like, spiritual ideas.
These are ideas you can build a religion around.
Here we have an alien among us in Superman who represents the highest and best qualities of what we like to think of as humanity.
Why has Superman endured for so long? It's because those themes are undying, and so is he.
Superman has been through just about everything you can think of 52 universes, evil versions of himself, bizarro versions of himself.
He died, very famously.
Superman kind of is so well known and so well documented in animation, in film, in television, in comics.
First connection I had to Superman growing up was the day I read my first "Superman" comic.
It kind of taught you you could do almost anything you wanted.
If he could, why couldn't I? My very first connection was the Max and Dave Fleischer "Superman" cartoons that I saw when I was very, very young.
They were done on a really elaborate scale for cartoons.
They were very realistic and very cinematic.
I am and always will be a fan of the original TV series, "Adventures of Superman," with George Reeves, 'cause that's what I grew up with as a kid.
Your aim is bad, Luigi.
The first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve really embraced the Superman I grew up with.
I read the script, and quite honestly, it was missing the humanity, its sense of reality.
I decided to do it if they'd let me do a rewrite, and the reason I would do it was to protect Superman.
It played a huge part in my imaginative life.
I actually have a scar on my chin right here.
I jumped off the couch with a cape that said "Superkid" on it, and I fell on my face.
For me, I grew up in the time of the great "Animated Series.
" I'm a huge "Animated Series" fan.
I really like the Bruce Timm designs of Superman.
Those angular characters are, I think, very unique.
One of the things that we decided to do early on both to humanize Superman and also to kind of make the stories a little bit more interesting is we did make him a little bit more vulnerable.
I love the "Smallville" version of Superman.
I think Tom Welling did a really good job portraying Superman's innocence and the tension in him.
I think every major creator at some point wants to tackle and tell a Superman story.
It's an American fable.
It's American history.
Everybody wants to take a crack at it.
As a Superman fan, there's no greater feeling than getting the chance to contribute something, anything, to the legacy of the character.
You know you're standing on the shoulders of giants that preceded you, so there is pressure to get it right and to tell a great story.
Once you open the comics, you realize how deep the storytelling is, how much of it is based on the connections between people.
I think the greatest Superman moment of all time is five panels in Grant Morrison's "All-Star Superman.
" There is a woman on a ledge who's about to step off, and a strong voice behind her says, "You are so much stronger than you think you are.
" At heart, they are really sort of simple stories.
You know, Superman is the immigrant that comes here and sees the best in us.
Different writers bring their passions, and, as you go through the decades, you see different social justice issues being raised.
A good writer is looking at everything around him and looks at society and sees, "What can you address?" We live in a society now where truth, justice, and the American way, these ideas are actually under siege.
Looking at the world we live in and Superman's place in it, you realize that he's exactly the hero we need right now.
Boy, do we need Superman.
The great thing about the Superman universe is the breadth of it.
Because Superman is a science fiction character, ultimately, the whole universe is open, so he's connected to things across time travel, the future, the past, through space travel, as well as to Earth and Krypton.
Well, I think it's gonna be really interesting to see the backstory of Superman's family.
I mean, we basically know the story of Superman's parents fairly well, but the idea that there are family histories that extend beyond that I think is one that's rich for development.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Where we're standing right now is the DC Comics archive.
Pretty much every single issue DC Comics published, it's here in this room.
Hey, guys, I got the incredible opportunity to come visit DC Comics, check out their archive, and learn more about the incredible history of DC Comics, Superman, and the world of Krypton.
Let's go check it out.
Where we're standing right now is the doorway to the DC Comics archive.
It's one of the most special places in all of comic history.
Pretty much every single issue that DC Comics has published from 1938 to whatever came out last week, it's here in this room.
We have the most important comic book ever made.
It's this one right here.
It's "Action Comics" #1.
It's the landmark issue which creates the genre of superheroes by having Superman in it.
It is the birth of the golden age of comics, and that's where Krypton starts, when the rocket ship takes off.
Everyone that's kind of touched Superman, from the radio play to the movies to the comic books, has added to his mythology and expanded what he can do.
All of superheroes come from this comic.
So this is the first panel ever.
So as a lifelong fan, holding onto this comic book means everything to me.
He's the kind of character that, the more you dig into him, the more you're impressed that he's doing what he does and the way he does what he does.
Some of my favorite versions of Krypton really imagine it as a place that I think that was like us.
No matter how kind of wondrous civilization gets, you realize that they still have some of the same kind of deep-rooted conflicts that we have now.
It seems to me like they had, you know, the idea of Krypton, and Superman comes from him, but it wasn't until a little bit later, they actually came back to it.
I mean, it's such a fertile ground for really rich stories, and you can't start the story without all of this.
And actually, I believe I have a map of Krypton in case you get lost.
I don't know what it looks like on the show, but the Rainbow Cavern should be here.
The Volcano of Gold.
And I could tell you right now, some of these places feature in the show.
I'm not gonna tell you which ones.
- That's fantastic.
- You have to watch.
The great thing about Superman is that it's got a mythological basis that everybody knows, and, from that, you can tell a variety of stories.
It's fascinating how the first interpretations of Superman were a much more rough-and-tumble hero.
- Yeah.
- And he wasn't necessarily going after mad scientists.
He was much more street justice.
- Right.
- Which is something we've brought to our show.
The mythology has expanded so much, and for us, as well, it's a science fiction show, so it all has to make sense.
This is "Action Comics" 236 to 247, and it's here for a very important reason.
- Brainiac.
- Brainiac.
Brainiac is this thing that comes here and then captures us and says, "You're just this tiny, small thing, "and you're never going to be important, "you're never going to be big, and so let me bottle you up and take you away.
" Brainiac's history was already tied to Krypton even before Superman came to Earth.
Famously, Brainiac came to Krypton in the past and devastated Kandor.
He stole the entire city and shrunk it down into this globe on his ship, and so it made absolute sense that he would be our big bad.
One of my favorite interpretations of Brainiac throughout the years is the run that Geoff and Gary Frank did with incredible art and really, in a way, brought Brainiac back into Superman continuity and made him who he is, this incredible green being.
And it's interesting to me as well, the way Brainiac has always been used as well is for a way for Superman to reexamine what it means to be human.
Gary Frank, the artist, and I really decided to take a run at making him threatening in a, I guess, more horrific way and would go around to these places and digitize cultures and destroy it and just collect it, and that version of Brainiac did heavily influence what we're doing in the show.
It's not just gonna stop at Krypton.
It is coming for everything.
It's known as the collector of worlds.
Here we are in one of our oldest bound issues.
There's "Showcase" #17.
Adam Strange.
Adam Strange was really the closest thing we had to a straight science fiction comic book, and he transported from here to his home planet and had various adventures.
I come from a planet called Earth, a time centuries from now, and I've come here to warn you.
The origin of Adam Strange is almost like a reversal of the Superman origin.
Strange came from Earth and ended up on a strange planet that he became the hero of.
Adam Strange should be our cue to the audience that this is more than just about the Superman mythology.
If you know comic books, Doomsday's origins happen on Krypton, and we'll be wrapping Doomsday into the story.
There's a item called the Black Mercy that shows up in the pilot, and that's related to a character named Mongul that we hope to bring in.
There's a world in the comics called Thanagar where Hawkman and Hawkwoman are from, and they're going to be wrapped up in the story as well.
So Adam Strange is sort of the gateway to all the space-related characters in the DC universe.
When you step on set, you just feel immersed in this world of mythology.
The Fortress set has been the one that we have agonized over the most.
So, here we are in the tribunal chamber, and as you can see, the legacy of Krypton and Superman, it's literally all around us.
The production has gone to great lengths to mine even the most minute details from the franchise's deep history, and this is to ensure that the world we create is not only paying tribute to what's come before but is also completely, uniquely our own.
This show is just, like, a really pure form of escapism.
You get to see these really creative, exciting worlds that are different than your own.
DC have done a fantastic job of allowing creators and artists to go their own direction.
And David Goyer, using the framework of the DC universe, has crafted this beautifully deep society for us.
Strange to think our ancestors used to carry children in their wombs.
Because it's a truly alien world and an alien culture, the design time was almost double that you would normally have for a show.
The amazing thing about all of these sets is they are epic in scale but down to the fine detail, and that was by design because we are telling an immersive cinematic story.
If you're so clever, how come you're on the stupid end of this blaster? Being on these sets, you don't even need to try and get into character.
You just feel immersed in this world of mythology.
This fortress, it's why they killed Grandfather, isn't it? The Fortress set has been the one that we have agonized over the most.
Does this really belong to my grandson? Yeah.
We learn in the course of the show that the Fortress of Solitude actually had its origins on Krypton and it was Val-El's secret scientific base.
Tell me about Brainiac.
Help me find a way to stop him.
I think Superman fans have been dying to see Brainiac done justice on screen the way he deserves.
And we're doing our utmost to deliver that.
Your world is at an end.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
There's a lot of expectations.
There's lots of fans.
There's lots of people that are very passionate about Superman, and it does feel like it's a big responsibility.
Val-El was right! Enough! We've never actually seen what the El family stands for in their own society in the context of their world.
It's time you learn the truth.
And you had to steal a skimmer for that? To have the freedom to make an entire TV series about Krypton is just really exciting.
You're walking on untouched soil.
I think what people are interested in knowing is the background of Superman's family and what's in his DNA that led him to become the person that he is.
The amazing thing about our show is that we get to take bits that we like from the comics, from the TV shows, from the movies, and smash them all together, as well as adding our own stuff and moving forward with a new story.
People genuinely have no idea what is about to come their way.
Welcome to your grandfather's Fortress of Solitude.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC.]
Go on.
Try it.
[DISTANT CLANGING.]
As a lifelong fan of this world, I feel so lucky to be a part of "Krypton.
" To contribute to the legend of Superman, it's a humbling and awesome experience, and I can't wait to share what we've come up with.
My own personal Kryptonite? Oh, my God.
I would say my Kryptonite is heights.
- Red onion.
- Time.
- Deadlines.
- LEGOs.
I have stepped on so many LEGOs.
I don't have a good answer.
Haircuts? I don't know if that makes any sense.
My Kryptonite is carbs.
- Probably Hostess, I think.
- Injustice.
I'm probably my own personal Kryptonite.