Before Ann Ogbomo was a Kryptonian general — Jayna Zod, the grandmother of General Dru-Zod, the villain in Superman II and Man of Steel — she played an Amazon in Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman movie.
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While playing a beloved character in that film had obvious advantages, Ogbomo told a group of reporters, including ComicBook.com, that she is really enjoying portraying an unknown character who gets to play in the DC sandbox.
“When I played Philippus in Wonder Woman, although we hadn’t seen her in a film necessarily before, the character is in people’s minds from the comics, so people have an idea of what they want that character to be,” Obgomo said during a recent visit the Krypton set. “However, in this, I feel that, yes, I’m a Zod, but you don’t know this character. You’ve never met this character before, so it’s very exciting for me as an actor because it’s mine and I’m creating it.”
There is an assumption on the part of some in the audience that Jayna Zod and her daughter Lyta (played by Georgina Campbell) will be evil simply because Lyta’s eventual son, who does not yet exist in the world of Krypton, is such a well-known antagonist.
That gives Ogbomo and Campbell plenty to work with, while they define characters nobody quite knows yet.
“I kid you not …In Superman II, when Zod…you know, the three Kryptonians in black? That was, as a kid, one of my favorite moments, and I’ve gone back and I’ve watched them, and I’ve got my backstory,” Ogbomo said. “And while they come across as baddies, what’s great about this is Zods have a history where they are brilliant people. They are not bad people, and I love being able to watch General Zod in Superman II and go, ‘I’m not going to do it like that.’ I loved that as a kid, but I’ve got a whole backstory, and there are loads of different shades to my character. And hopefully those shades will come through and people will start to relate to the Zods in a different way. I think they like the Zods. They like villains, don’t they? And I just feel in this, they’re not villains. They’re people who hopefully people will get to like and understand.”
Are you excited to see more of Superman’s birth world? Chime in below to discuss your hopes, expectations, and reservations.
Krypton is coming to SYFY on March 21st.
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