Brainiac’s plot to shrink the city of Kandor and bottle it means big trouble for Seg in Krypton’s Season 1 finale.
So far, Brainiac and his emissaries have proven virtually unstoppable. However, desperate times call for desperate measures. General Zod wants to thaw the slumbering Doomsday, and let that monster battle it out with Brainiac. But at what cost? As the clock ticks down, Seg will be forced to make some tough decisions in order to defeat the green-skinned Collector of Worlds -- or lose Kandor forever.
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Showrunner Cameron Welsh recently spoke with CBR about Brainiac’s endgame, preserving the El legacy, Doomsday unleashed on the small screen, betrayals and what’s in store for Season 2 of the freshly renewed Syfy series.
CBR: General Zod somehow seems to be Seg’s son. How does that bombshell sit with Seg?
Cameron Welsh: The news probably impacts the audience, who have more knowledge of Zod’s history than Seg himself in many ways. Seg is still trying to figure out exactly who Zod is. But, by the end of the finale, he’s left in no doubt about the man, what he stands for and the lengths he’ll go to in order to achieve his goals.
Lyta sided with General Zod over Seg and her own mother. That must sting. In what ways will that impact all their relationships moving forward?
Seg definitely feels the sting of betrayal, especially after experiencing something similar with Adam. It may make Seg generally less trusting, but in terms of Lyta specifically, he is still in love with her and with a bit of distance, he’ll understand Lyta truly did what she thought was right. He can respect that. The bigger question may be whether Lyta can ever forgive herself for the choices she's made?
Brainiac is now on the loose. How dire is the situation at this point, and what does he want?
On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a code Thanos! I mean, he’s not called the Collector of Worlds for nothing. A being that has the power to do what Brainiac does is not to be taken lightly. We’ve already seen how hard our heroes have had to fight just to combat his Sentry.
At this moment, Brainiac has one goal -- to capture Kandor and add it to his collection -- and now he is fully powered, fully present and ready to get on with the job. Brainiac has not yet failed when he’s set his sights on a city, and with Kandor as divided and broken as it already is, it’s looking like a snack to him.
Nothing seems to phase Brainiac. What now? What kind of options are Seg weighing?
Seg has shown so far that there are some lines he isn’t prepared to cross. To defeat Brainiac, he will be forced to reconsider this. There’s no question that this is easily the biggest test Seg has ever faced, but that’s already obvious. What is interesting to me is seeing how the development of the character across the season has set the stage for Seg to define what he believes the El legacy has and should be in the future, having started at a place of disconnection from it.
For now, Doomsday remains in a deep freeze. What conversations did you have about realizing this powerhouse predator on the small screen?
We had many, many conversations about how to best realize Doomsday. I know that so far, we haven’t seen that much of him, just glimpses, and that’s for a few reasons. Firstly, story. We don’t want to rush his introduction. Secondly, we wanted to take all the time we had to develop the concept designs in order to deliver the very best Doomsday we could, one that DC fans would be truly excited to see. Our VFX team, led by the brilliant Ian Markiewicz, really delivered the goods with this Doomsday. We referenced the iconic Dan Jurgens Doomsday design and that was our foundation. In fact, in the finale, we tip our hat to the great Dan Jurgens with some of the visuals as we further Doomsday’s story.
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Adam Strange has been MIA. What’s he willing to do to ensure the timeline, and to prevent that red cape from completely disappearing?
Adam Strange is still a work in progress. He’s not yet a fully formed hero, as much as he thinks or hopes he is. By the end of this season, he will need to reconcile the choices he’s made so far and face the truth that maybe he rushed things, maybe he was too gung-ho, maybe he has a lot left to learn before he earns that heroic nickname he craves. That said, there’s no questioning his commitment to the cause. He fights for what he believes in and that’s a genuinely heroic trait. He might just be best served to gather a bit more info before rushing into a mission next time.
General Zod isn’t Superman’s full-fledged nemesis quite yet. What are some of the steps audiences will see him take towards becoming that power-hungry character?
In a way, Zod has gone beyond being Superman’s nemesis. He’s already lived through all that, experienced that history, but that’s all in is past now. What we will now see is a Zod who has an opportunity to rewrite history with the knowledge of the future and the benefit of these experiences. I don’t think that makes him any less of a threat. I’d say that the Zod we are dealing with is the most formidable incarnation of the character we’ve seen.
The season finale is titled The Phantom Zone. What is the show’s take on that dimensional prison?
The Phantom Zone technology is still in its infancy. The A.I. of Val-El has already spoken to Seg about that, and we already have a sense that it is somewhat unreliable and somewhat unmanageable. Beyond that, the Phantom Zone is still an enigma, waiting to be fully explored. Perhaps the one thing we know for sure is that it’s powerful beyond measure -- and we’ll see more than a taste of that in the finale.
What else can you tease about the finale and how it might affect the characters in Season 2?
The finale does feel like the convergence of all the different story threads we’ve been weaving across the season. No character is unchanged by the events of this season and we see that very clearly in the finale. That doesn’t mean everything will be neatly resolved. But, I think it’s very satisfying in that it answers a lot of the questions the audiences might still have, it pays off our set-ups, but it will absolutely leave you wanting more. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved in this episode and think it’s a great way to cap our first season and propel us into the next.
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Finally, Brainiac, Zod and Doomsday are all heavyweights in Superman lore. Which other characters are you hoping to introduce next year?
Is that not enough? [Russell Crowe voice] “Are you not entertained?!” We will soon be gathering all the key creatives to have that discussion. I have some ideas but in truth, I think there is still a lot more to explore with the characters you just mentioned. We don’t want to burn through them too quickly and squander the opportunity we have to fully realize these characters, to dig deep and try to understand what’s at their core, what really motivates them. That’s the beauty of television; you have multiple episodes and, Rao willing, multiple seasons to really peel back the layers of your characters and in doing so, we can sometimes challenge the very notion of heroes and villains.
The first season finale of Krypton airs at 10 tonight on Syfy.