Krypton Trailer Breakdown and Analysis

The first trailer for Syfy's Krypton TV series has hit the internet...perhaps a tad earlier than the network intended. As of this writing, Krypton is only a pilot, and Syfy hasn't picked it up for a full series order yet. But based on the reaction to this trailer, I get the feeling they'd be silly not to.

I have to say, I've been burned by Superman prequels in the past (Smallville), Batman prequels in the present (Gotham), and I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the DC Extended Universe movies. But based on this 90 seconds of footage, Krypton looks really promising. The opening narration aside, it doesn't feel like it's going out of its way to bury you with specific "you know what happens next!" references, and it leans heavily on science fiction and yes, even Game of Thrones vibes.

It's early to get my hopes up, but if nothing else, the visuals are tremendous. While this may or may not be an official prequel to the events of the Man of Steel movie, it certainly looks like it could be, and that movie was at its absolute best when doing its Kryptonian sci-fi worldbuilding.

Here's the trailer in case you haven't seen it yet.

So, I don't go shot by shot or in order in the trailer. I'm just pulling out things that jumped out at me and trying to make connections.

Spot something that I didn't? Throw it in the comments or hit me up on Twitter! 

Alright. Let's get to work.

Right from the start, you can see the visual nods to Man of Steel. The depleted, desert look of Krypton, and that particular color scheme, looks very much like the version we got in Man of Steel, and that's clearly no accident. David S. Goyer, who wrote that film, is also writing Krypton.

By the way, I wrote a ton about all the weird Krypton and DC stuff in Man of Steel right here if you want to read it.

The Supergirl TV series also borrows a little of that color scheme for their Krypton flashbacks, but it's way more apparent here.

Here's a look at the surface of Krypton from Man of Steel for comparison's sake:

But just in case you had any lingering doubts about what kind of aesthetic they're going for here...

That is very much the Codex key from Man of Steel. Well, that, or a piece of technology startlingly like it. 

Still not convinced?

"It's not an S..."

This is unquestionably the Man of Steel version of the House of El crest. This is actually my favorite version of the Superman shield in all of pop culture history, and despite the fact that I'm pretty lukewarm on some of the choices the DCEU movies have made, I love Krypton's aesthetic, the Superman costume, and this logo in particular.

It looks even better here than it does in the movies since it's glowing in proper primary colors, too.

While the other DC TV shows are part of a "multiverse" rather than a typical shared universe with the movies, it kinda looks like Krypton is going to be a straight up DCEU prequel. 

This appears to be Kandor, but this leads me to some problems with my Man of Steel continuity.

I'm pretty sure that all the action we saw take place in Man of Steel took place in Kandor, and that city most certainly didn't have a dome. But whenever I think of Kryptonian cities, my mind wanders to "bottled" Kryptonian cities, and from there, it's not much of a leap to a dome. In the comics (not to mention other versions of the Superman story, including Smallville), Kandor went bye-bye long before Krypton itself did, usually because Brainiac came along and scooped it up, leaving nothing but a crater in its place. I would love to see Brainiac play some kind of role on this show.

On the other hand, the comic version of Argo City, Supergirl's hometown, had a dome over it, and that's one of the reasons it initially survived Krypton's explosion. Although the Supergirl TV series hasn't taken that route, and anyway, this show isn't set in that continuity.

But I also feel the need to point out that when you look at the Kryptonian landscape from Superman: The Movie, the cities were isolated clusters kind of like this, too, usually with a central dome of some kind (although the cities themselves weren't domed).

I have to appreciate the Kryptonian architecture, though.

Before Krypton was depicted as a crystalline ice world in Superman: The Movie, one of its key influences was the work of Alex Raymond and the original Flash Gordon comic strip. For decades, alien cities in general defaulted to a kind of art deco "Raymondism," especially Krypton. This is the first time I've really seen this attempted in a modern way in live action, and it's really cool. 

You could totally have shown me this picture and told me "hey, check out a look at Mongo from this new Flash Gordon TV series" and I would have been really excited. But yeah, the fact that early Krypton looks the way Krypton did for nearly the first 50 years of comics is a really nice touch, and a cool change of pace from the crumbling society we glimpsed in Man of Steel.

Unless I'm mistaken, the guy in the black robe is Elliot Cowan as Daron Vex. He's probably not a good guy.

Those black robes, though...

...they sure remind me of the ceremonial garb that Jor-El wore when pronouncing sentence on criminals in Superman: The Movie. This probably isn't an accident, because clearly, there will be trials on this show...

These appear to be judges. That multi-face mask is a really cool design, and vaguely reminds me of the floating blue Science Council heads from the opening of Superman: The Movie that scared the living crap out of me as a kid.

I'm really digging the Kryptonese embroidery on that robe. Also, don't let anyone tell you otherwise: the language is called Kryptonese. People from Krypton are Kryptonian, but they speak Kryptonese. This is one of the few things that the Supergirl TV series gets wrong and it bugs me a little every time.

I probably shouldn't let things like that bug me, huh?

ANYWAY...we were talking about trials.

Hey, it's Barristan Selmy! That's Game of Thrones' Ian McElhinney as Val-El, the great, great grandfather of Superman (and the grandfather of this show's protagonist, Seg-El). There's no Val-El in the comics, but there is a Van-El (well, Van-L because in ancient Kryptonian history, that's how their names were spelled...oh god, why did I know what without having to look it up?), so maybe those early reports that Mr. McElhinney is playing "Val-El" were wrong, and he's Van-El? It doesn't matter.

I'm sure that the significance of the blue bodysuit and red cape isn't lost on anybody, but this is a really great shot.

What's he on trial for? Well, Kryptonians frown on space travel, for one thing, and he kind of looks like he's wearing some kind of pilot's harness. Or he could be part of that revolution that the voiceover teases. 

Either way, it appears that he's getting shipped off to Ye Olde Phantom Zone. You can spot those judges up on the right, too. My big question is, will he be sent to the Phantom Zone in a giant stone penis sarcophagus like we saw in Man of Steel? OK, that's not really my "big question." 

Also, again, that Kryptonian architecture has that super cool Flash Gordon flavor.

It would appear that Val-El makes it out of that Phantom Zone, though.

It's not clear what this revolution is all about. But there's a great comic from the 1980s called The World of Krypton by John Byrne and Mike Mignola (yes, the Hellboy creator), which also told of Superman's ancestors. In that story, Krypton went through a kind of "clone wars" of there own. Clones were used to keep everyone young and healthy (they were replacement parts), and the debate about that became heated enough to plunge the planet into civil war. 

I doubt that's what they're going for here, but it would be cool to see it touched on.

I don't know who's getting wiped out here, but I presume it's another member of the House of El. I also really like this shot, and that cape is hot stuff. I don't know who that is in the cape, but absent from the rest of this trailer is Aaron Pierre as Dev-Em. Could this be him?

I love the fact that we're getting a TV show with Dev-Em on it. That's a Phantom Zone villain who has been annoying Superman since like, 1961.

That's Cameron Cuffe (Florence Foster Jenkins) as Seg-El, he's Superman's paternal grandfather and the guy giving the voiceover narration that is hopefully only here for the trailer rather than as an ongoing device on the show. He first appeared in that World of Krypton comic I mentioned above, although his name there is spelled Seyg-El.

I can't help but notice that Seg-El has a kind of "working class" look to his attire most of the time. I'm sure Kryptonian class war is coming.

Cuffe definitely has those strong "House of El" features, but while "in continuity" his son will be Russell Crowe's Jor-El, he kinda looks like he could father someone who looks like Brando's version...

Right? Anyone want to take bets on how many times I can bring up Superman: The Movie when talking about this show? Because really, I'll use any excuse to do it.

That's Georgina Campbell as Lyta Zod, and yes, she is you-know-who's ancestor. Her crest here seems to be different than the Zod crest we saw in Man of Steel, which is interesting, unless this is just a general military caste crest rather than a House of Zod thing. Unless Zod's crest was meant to denote rank rather than name, which would also make perfect sense.

Also, there's a pretty steamy looking sex scene glimpsed in this trailer. Remember in the opening of Man of Steel where they made a big deal out of the fact that Kal-El was born "the old-fashioned way?" In the comics of the '80s/'90s, not only was natural childbirth not a thing on Krypton, neither was the fun part. Babies were made 100% in test tubes (or "birthing matrixes") and sex was considered primitive and barbaric. I wonder how many rules Lyta and Seg-El are breaking?

That's Wallis Day from The Royals as Nyssa Vex. I don't think this character has a comic book counterpart, but there was certainly a Car-Vex in Man of Steel, so this is an ancestor.

Is this the mysterious "Fortress" that the elder El is telling Seg-El to find? Or is it a tunnel to the center of Krypton? 

In World of Krypton, the terrorist organization Black Zero basically empties some kind of nuclear destabilizing agent into Krypton's core, which helps hasten the planet's destruction centuries later. Could this be a nod to that? 

And yes, don't @ me, I know that the Black Zero was the name of the ship in Man of Steel.

Again, the Man of Steel vibes are strong in this shot. This looks both like the Codex repository and, perhaps, something else.

Is there a city contained in that globe? If so, there's my Brainiac theory again.

The young soldier who Seg-El is beating the crap out of here boasts the same military haircut we saw on Michael Shannon's General Zod in Man of Steel. 

Alright, Science Council! See anything I didn't? Let me know in the comments or shout 'em at me on that Phantom Zone of futility, Twitter! I'm just kidding, we all know Facebook is the actual Phantom Zone. That place is awful.