Krypton is often depicted as either a lavish, ornate world at the pinnacle of its opulence, or as a utilitarian utopia. But rarely, if ever, is it considered as a place where people actually live their lives — eat, drink, work, maybe even have a family. Syfy’s new drama, Krypton, has put a lot of thought into how to change that.
Image: Syfy
In a gallery article for Entertainment Weekly, Krypton‘s production designer Ondrej Nekvasil walks through some of the primary locations of the show, sharing design sketches and thoughts on how the production team conceived of their version of Krypton.
“We were trying to create a world that was believable,” Nekvasil said. “They key thing is that on Krypton, all of the people on Krypton look like people on Earth. So, the scale of the set and the scale of the spaces has to be similar to what we know because the people live there.
All illustrations by Stefan Hill/ Image: Syfy
“Because life on the planet is kind of tough, they don’t do designs,” said Nekvasil. “If they make something, it’s because they use it and they would like to use it for life. It’s not because they would like to design something. We were trying to stay away from the over-design, over-dressed rooms. We were trying to show that everything has some kind of practical reason for why it’s there.”
Some of the sets on offer include an OG version of the Fortress of Solitude, which forms the cernterpiece for the heritage of the House of El. Featuring a statue of the family’s forebears and chronicles of the family’s history on Kryptonese on the windows, it’s what Nekvasil calls “a spiritual place,” not just a home for science or work but reflection and history.
Nekvasil’s work also showcases income stratification on Krypton, with Superman’s ancestor Seg El living in an apartment in the poor part of Kandor, with furniture hewn out of functionary metal mesh. Meanwhile, the wealthy of the city live literally above Kandor’s poor, in golden, sunlight buildings and passageways built on top of the poorer areas.
Another fun tidbit: the show will also feature Fort Rozz, a location mentioned in Supergirl as a prison for Krypton’s worst. In the earlier era of the show, however, it’s still a fully functionally Kryptonian military base.
I’ve included a couple of choice images from the gallery above, and you can view the rest over at Entertainment Weekly.
[EW]