If you were a fan of SyFy's Krypton, then it's easy to understand why you might be confused
by its cancellation.
But it seems like there were some good reasons for Syfy to pull the plug.
Here's why Krypton was blown up earlier than expected.
If you judge it purely by critical reception, Krypton's cancellation is confusing.
Critics almost unanimously praised the series' second season over its first.
IGN's David Griffith called it "bigger and bolder," and Eric Joseph from We Got This
Covered wrote that the series was, quote, "finally finding its potential."
But the improvements didn't matter if no one was watching it.
It's not that nobody watched Krypton's second season, but the numbers dropped significantly.
According to CinemaBlend, Krypton's series premiere was Syfy's highest-rated debut in
four years.
But the numbers dropped from there.
The average viewership for a season 1 episode was close to 790,000.
TV Series Finale reports that Krypton's second season finale attracted only 350,000 viewers,
less than half of the audience of most season 1 episodes.
Critics of Krypton's first season wrote that the series was a slog to bother following
and that it was characterized by both complicated plotting and boring character arcs.
So while those same critics may have been impressed with Krypton's growth in the second
season, a disappointing first season may have kept viewers away.
The promise of more Doomsday and the appearance of the violently vulgar Lobo and may not have
been enough to win back fans who stopped watching during the first season of the show.
Krypton takes place long before the birth of Kal-El known on Earth as Superman.
"Kal-El. My future grandson. This is the story of the house of El."
The protagonist, Seg-El, is Kal's grandfather, and when the series opens, his son Jor-El,
Superman's father, hasn't been born yet.
It's a Superman show with no Superman, and no Kryptonian even has super powers.
You could argue that Gotham was similarly a Batman show without Batman, but at least
Bruce Wayne is there.
As early as the first season, it was clear viewers were watching his evolution into the
Dark Knight.
On Krypton, Superman hasn't even been conceived.
As of its final episode, Superman's father is an infant.
Gotham took advantage of one of the Batman franchise's chief strengths: his deep rogues'
gallery.
Superman, on the other hand, doesn't enjoy a wealth of popular villains.
The most famous is Lex Luthor, and Krypton's setting and time period make his involvement
all but impossible.
By the end of Krypton's second season, we've met General Zod, Brainiac, and Doomsday, and
that's pretty much it as far as popular, non-human Superman villains are concerned.
"Kneel before Zod!"
Mister Mxyzptlk might have been a possibility, and the newly introduced villain Rogol Zaar,
who was revealed to be responsible for Krypton's destruction in the comics, could have shown
up.
Perhaps the show could have brought in Darkseid, who's hinted at in the season 2 finale.
But after that, the well's pretty dry for space-based Superman baddies.
Krypton's premise relies heavily on time travel and it gets a little confusing.
Adam Strange travels back from the present to make sure things unfold as they should.
"I come from a planet called Earth.
A time centuries from now.
And I've come here to warn you.
Someone from the future is coming to destroy Krypton."
"Okay.
Right."
He brings Superman's cape with him, but it disintegrates.
By the end of the first season, the cape has reappeared, but bears the sigil of Zod.
There's also the odd relationship between Seg, Lyta-Zod and Dru-Zod, who becomes General
Zod.
Seg and Lyta are Zod's parents, and they never seem to have a difficult time adjusting to
this new information.
They immediately start speaking to Dru as if they raised him, even though they just
met him.
And it's a little jarring that Colin Salmon, who plays Dru-Zod, is three decades older
than the actors playing his parents.
Once Dru-Zod assumes leadership of the planet in season 2, no one has a problem accepting
he's a time traveler.
In the first season, acknowledging there might be intelligent alien life in the universe
is considered heresy, yet in season 2 everyone is fine with their leader having parents young
enough he could be their dad.
Krypton isn't the first comic book series to get axed by Syfy.
In June 2019, the network announced that neither Happy! nor Deadly Class, both based on creator-owned
comics, would be renewed.
Krypton's demise took with it the upcoming Lobo spinoff, too.
Syfy could be getting skittish about comic-book-based series.
And it could have something to do with the competition.
Marvel has a wide slate of Disney+ MCU series coming.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. still has one more season planned, Cloak & Dagger and Runaways
have an upcoming crossover, and Hulu's Ghost Rider is on its way.
Amazon Prime's The Boys made a big splash, as did Netflix's Umbrella Academy.
And even though Swamp Thing barely got a chance to prove itself, the DC Universe streaming
service had successes with the first seasons of Titans and Doom Patrol, and there's still
the upcoming Stargirl.
Then there's the CW's Arrowverse, which is still going strong.
Arrow is about to come to a close, but there's still The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl,
Black Lightning, and the series premiere of Batwoman.
Most of those series will be involved in the huge "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover.
It could be that the powers that be at Syfy are looking at the field of superhero and
comic book shows and thinking there's just too much competition out there.
"It's not superhero time."
Unless the creative team planned the series to feature an alternative narrative to the
story we all know, Krypton would have ended with the destruction of the planet and the
deaths of most of the characters.
Even by the end of season 2, the show seemed to be ditching the planet.
Hoping to save Jor-El, Nyssa uses Adam's Zeta Beam to go to the planet Rann.
Brainiac and Jor-El are on their way to Earth.
Seg and Lobo have formed a complicated alliance of their own.
So if Krypton had made it season 3, it doesn't seem like much of the show would have taken
place on the title planet, at least for a while.
The show seemed to be expanding beyond the boundaries of Superman's home planet, becoming
more of a showcase for DC's cosmic mythos.
Krypton's very premise painted the series in a corner.
You can only explain how non-Kryptonian characters keep showing up on the planet in so many ways.
And if you go too far outside the original setting, how do you reel the story back to
focus on the final cataclysm?
At least that's something Krypton's writers won't have to figure out now.
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