Gotham debuted earlier this season on Fox. With the show's recent full-season order, Gotham has proved enough of a success that DC has been inspired to put another prequel show into production, but while Gotham explores the seedy home of Bruce Wayne, this show will head out of this world to explore the society of DC’s other most famous superhero. That’s right, Warner Bros. and DC are developing a TV project about Krypton, Superman’s birth planet.
According to Bleeding Cool, screenwriter David S. Goyer is attached to the project. Goyer has been involved with DC projects since 2005’s Batman Begins, and he recently explored Krypton for Man of Steel, so if anyone is capable of breathing life into Superman’s birth planet in-depth, it’s him. Krypton is not expected to include Superman since he was born right before the planet’s destruction, although the article speculates that if it moves forward, the series will on focus the House of El (i.e. Superman’s genetic family) and might include Brainiac. Krypton would be another Superman prequel series following Smallville, which explored Clark Kent’s exploits before he put on the cape.
Krypton follows announcements for Static Shock, TNT’s Titans and CBS’ Supergirl, which recently received a series commitment. It’s unclear whether Krypton would be connected to Supergirl, although it would be an interesting experiment for DC to run. In the comics, Kara Zor-El, the future Supergirl, lived on Krypton in the years before it exploded, but her spaceship didn’t arrive on Earth until decades after Superman’s did. Because she was in suspended animation during the trip, she’s actually younger than her cousin Kal-El. If Krypton and Supergirl share the same continuity, it would be interesting to see Kara appear in an episode of the prequel project. That being said, Krypton hasn't been picked up yet, and if it does eventually find a home on a network other on CBS, this would be problematic to pull off.
Although Gotham has been well-received, there’s no guarantee Krypton would share that success. One thing Gotham has going for it is the large cast of Batman characters, from good guys like James Gordon to villains like Oswald Cobblepot. Krypton doesn’t have that advantage. Aside from Superman’s genetic family and possibly a few villains with Kryptonian history (like Brainiac and Doomsday), the show wouldn’t be able to include many other familiar characters. While the majority of Gotham characters are from the Batman mythos, Krypton would need to create a horde of original characters.
The other problem Krypton would have is the same one Gotham faces: a downer ending. Regardless of all the positive developments that could happen, the planet Krypton will still die. Gotham viewers at least have the comfort of knowing that most of the show’s main characters will still be alive when Batman shows up, but in Krypton, everyone will be dead. Yeah, it’s a bummer.
