5 reasons SYFY’s Krypton deserves a third season

Krypton, SYFY’s little Superman prequel that could, wraps up its rollicking, action-packed second season next week. And it deserves to come back for a third. Here’s why.

SYFY’s Superman prequel series Krypton is probably the best sci-fi show you’re not watching.

It’s true. A series that is ostensibly the story of Superman’s grandfather maybe doesn’t grab your eye when you consider that we all know what happens to Krypton right after little Kal-El is born. Isn’t this whole show just basically a countdown to the destruction of an entire race? (Even if we do get a hero for the ages out of it all.)

Well, joke’s on everyone who hasn’t given this show a try – because it’s honestly one of the smartest, most well-written, gutsiest things on television.

Far from a paint-by-numbers drama about how the Man of Steel came to be, Krypton is a Game of Thrones-esque political saga with high stakes, compelling original characters, and familiar faces drawn from lesser-known DC Comics lore. There’s time travel, and clones, as well as a cult-like religious sect, a sentient AI, and a bounty hunter who looks like he crawled out of a Megadeath video. What’s not to love?

Krypton will wrap up its second season next week but, at the moment, its fate beyond that point remains uncertain. SYFY has already greenlit a spinoff series based around Lobo, the aforementioned Megadeath backup drummer, but has yet to announce anything about whether Krypton itself will be back for another run.

So I’m here to tell you that it 1000% deserves one. And we, as fans, deserve to see where this crazy, intense, and utterly satisfying ride goes in Season 3. Here are just a few brief reasons why.

It’s a prequel with something to say

On paper, Krypton shouldn’t be nearly as exciting as it is. It’s a prequel, after all – and a prequel about a planet of people we all know have died by the time we get to the part of the story we care about (i.e. Superman) takes place.

And yet, it’s also a show that doesn’t lean too heavily on the Superman mythology.

Sure, the show’s more fun if you’re well versed in the lord of the Man of Steel, and there are plenty of Easter eggs and great moments specifically designed for fans to enjoy. But in its second season, Superman has never felt less relevant to the story Krypton is telling – one which involves love, loss, betrayal and the ongoing fight against encroaching authoritarian evil. This isn’t a story about whether Superman exists any longer – it’s one about right and wrong, justice and family. It’s no longer about just one singular Kryptonian, but about all a planet’s people, and the kind of world they want to live in.

It takes so many risks

Krypton is the sort of series that’s unafraid to shake things up. And that includes aspects of the Superman mythology you thought you already knew.

Main characters have died. Some of them have been resurrected later. Clones exist. One of the Man of Steel’s greatest enemies turns out to have a tragic backstory of his own. Another gets inextricably tied to his grandfather, Seg-El, and even shares a body with him for a little bit. And the most famous of all is even worse than you ever could have imagined. (Even if the show let you think for a little while that that wasn’t the case.)

For all that Krypton is connected to some pretty heavy mythology, as a series it certainly doesn’t feel bound to it, and in fact is more than willing to change the story as it sees fit. In fact, it’s not entirely clear whether or not we’re even in a timeline where Superman exists any longer. And what might this show look like if that happened?

It champions complex female characters

The best part of Krypton is its women. This feels a bit strange to say, given that the bulk of the Superman mythos isn’t exactly centered on female characters. Sure, there’s Lois Lane, who is awesome in her own right, to be sure, but at the end of the day, she’s still just one woman.

On Krypton, there are half a dozen strong complicated women each with their own agendas, arcs and goals. From warrior Jayna to open-hearted Lyta to the brave, yet manipulative Nyssa, these female characters are anything but secondary. They’re driving the series’ story, making their own choices, and embracing their own power – and it’s fairly incredible to watch.

It offers fresh takes on old villains

We’ve all heard of the heavy hitters when it comes to villains in Superman mythology. Doomsday. General Zod. Brainiac. And they’re all here in Krypton, too – sometimes all at once. But these versions of those iconic bad guys all manage to feel fresh and new, because the show approaches them as characters first.

Brainiac is truly a collector, an immense intellect attempting to salvage the most worthwhile elements of the civilizations he comes in contact with. Doomsday was once a man like any other, who loved a woman and believed in duty. And General Zod, well. Dru-Zod was once a boy desperate to save his people and find his father, long before he became a monster. That he is so terrible now is a tragedy, particularly when we remember that season 1 showed us that didn’t necessarily have to be the case.

(Let’s put it this way: If a show can get you to question whether General Zod might actually not turn out to the terrible person, you know it’s doing something right.)

Its story is still about hope, after all.

It’s possible that most people didn’t think that Superman’s grandfather was a terribly interesting person, but, wow, were we ever wrong about that. Seg-El may have been more of a bystander than a leading man when this story started, but his evolution over the course of Krypton’s first two seasons has really been something to behold. While Seg has always possessed that innate sense of justice that seems to be hardwired into the El family DNA, he had to learn how to be a hero and consciously choose the path of self-sacrifice and bravery that he now finds himself on.  (As much as we all love Seg’s grandson, Kal-El seems to have burst forth into the world a hero, and that part of his journey is almost always taken as a given.)

Seg-El’s story reminds us that the S of the El house sigil stands for hope precisely because people contain multitudes, and can always choose now as the time to do the right thing. People can change. They can choose who they are, regardless of what family, or rank, or city-state they were born into. Characters like Seg, Adam Strange and Nyssa Vex all started this story as very different people – uninvolved, selfish, and manipulative – but will end it as heroes, fighting for the people they love. There’s hope for us all.

Krypton airs Wednesday nights at 10/9c on SYFY.