The first bit of casting news for Syfy’s upcoming series Krypton has revealed some intriguing hints about just what to expect from the story of Superman’s grandfather Seg-El (named after Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, which is lovely). While Seg remains un-cast, Deadline reports British actress Georgina Campbell will make her American TV debut as Lyta Zod. Here’s the latest description of her role:
Campbell’s Lyta Zod is a member of Krypton’s military caste and the daughter of a general, Alura Zod. Lyta Zod serves as a cadet — and has also been having a clandestine, forbidden romance with Seg-El (not cast yet).
So then, the House of Zod and the House of El are basically the Capulets and Montagues of Krypton — or, if Syfy wants to be seriously unconventional in how it depicts the culture of Superman’s home planet, maybe the Hatfields and the McCoys. In fairness, Seg and Lyta’s romance may well be forbidden as much because of Krypton’s strict caste system — as you may recall from the Russell Crowe bits of Man of Steel, which Krypton co-creator David Goyer also wrote, the Els are scientists and the Zods are warriors — as any particular beef between these two warring houses.
But it sure feels like the natural progression for Krypton’s two most famous families to elevate their relationship to that of full-on Shakespearean rivalry. And if Krypton did have to get run through one of modern genre TV’s standard formulas, it feels slightly more epic to do a teen-friendly forbidden love story than to cast Seg and Lyta as wise-cracking partners in a Kryptonian police procedural. Though we suppose there’s still time for that to happen too.
