Krypton Cancelled After Two Seasons

Krypton, the acclaimed SYFY series that centered on the adventures of Superman’s grandfather 200 years in the past, has been cancelled after two seasons, THR reports. This comes in spite of the fact that Lobo, played on the series by Constantine veteran Emmett Scanlan, had been expected to get his own spinoff series on the network. It is possible that story threads from Krypton could have been picked up on Lobo if it goes to series, especially since the season two finale, which aired earlier this week, saw Adam Strange and Seg-El preparing to follow The Main Man into space. That seems unlikely, though, as the report indicates that Lobo is dead at the network, too.

While Krypton‘s second season drew rave reviews from critics and its own audience, the average number of viewers was only around 400,000. Those numbers aren’t generally terrible for SYFY, but they are significantly below the 1.8 million the show was drawing in its first season, which is both a distressing trendline and also a bad number for a show as expensive as Krypton.

The series, which streams on DC Universe after its SYFY seasons end, could plausibly be picked up there or somewhere else, although there is no indication at this point that it is being shopped around. Earlier this year, SYFY cancelled both Happy! and Deadly Class, significantly reducing its footprint in the comic book TV space. Wynonna Earp has not been cancelled, but due to financial problems unrelated to SYFY, the series’ fourth season has not yet begun production.

Cameron Cuffe starred as Seg-El in the series, and headed up a troupe of great young actors including Supernatural‘s Shaun Sipos as Adam Strange; Wallis Day as Nyssa-Vex, and Georgina Campbell as Lyta-Zod. Arrow veteran Colin Salmon played General Zod, and Blake Ritson played Brainiac. The series centered on a time-travel plot by Zod to save Krypton from its destruction by harnessing Doomsday as a weapon against Brainiac, preventing him from bottling the city of Kandor. It was that act that created an unstable core and led to Krypton’s destruction.

While the series at first seemed like a story where consequences would not matter much, since everyone “knew” how it would end and that time would be restored so Superman could be born, Krypton went the other way. It became its own distinct timeline within the DC multiverse — one in which Brainiac never bottled Krypton but did kidnap a baby Jor-El, among other changes. With the series ended there is no telling what plans the producers might have had for season three, which appeared to tee up Rann, Thanagar, and the Omega Men.