‘Krypton’ Showrunner Explains Why They Made Brainiac Responsible For the Planet’s Destruction

In a recent episode of Krypton — the SYFY Superman prequel which airs its season finale tonight at 10 p.m. — Seg-El and his allies learned that it was Brainiac’s theft of the city of Kandor which ultimately led to the planet’s destruction: the Collector of Worlds’s attack destabilized the planet’s core, and left Krypton so compromised that even the world’s advanced technology could not save them.

This was a change that dramatically impacts the way In Superman: The Animated Series, Brainiac was a Kryptonian computer, and responsible for the planet’s destruction on purpose. Here, the world’s eventual end is ancillary to Brainiac’s mission, rather than its purpose. But why make the change at all? Showrunner Cameron Welsh talked to ComicBook.com about it.

“It was one of those things that we discussed in the room,” Welsh said. “As we were sort of looking at, as we’re talking about time travel and why this moment in time, why would we choose this particular moment to come back in time, and if we center it around the idea of Brainiac — and just as well for that kind of twist halfway through, where we’re setting up that Brainiac would come back in time and then to reveal that it was actually Zod — you had to sort of, why did Zod choose this moment? And it felt right.”

The comics were also a consideration; The Green Death, which has been referenced in a previous episode, was a story that informed some of how the writers viewed Brainiac. In some versions of Kryptonian history, the Green Death — an early plague tied to Kryptonite — was tied to the theft of Kandor. Since Kryptonite is often described as being the decaying remains of Krypton caused by the core’s instability, a connection between Brainiac and Kryptonite is a fairly commonsense link.

“There’s a storyline at some point about the Green Death, and I think that was a disease that Brainiac was involved in,” Welsh said. “So there might’ve been something in that. I feel like I read that at some point and that might be part of where it came from, but it just sort of felt right for us, and it felt like a good, simple logic that we could track and follow and that would make sense.”

Krypton will return for its second season in 2019.