Sure, installing Superman’s grandfather in Seg-El as its chief protagonist may allow for Krypton to carve out its own corner in DC mythology, but you have to admit that the inclusion of Brainiac really sweetens the deal when it comes to bringing those longtime fans of Big Blue on board. Really, despite the Collector of Worlds having been a staple in comics for decades, he’s seldom found his way to the live action realm.
To his credit, actor Blake Ritson seems well aware of how sporadically his character has been adapted, likely furthering his motivation to leave his mark. And considering how his onscreen appearance so closely mirrors artist Gary Frank’s vision, well, we’re guessing he stands a very good chance of doing so.
In fact, here’s what Ritson had to say to reporters on the more comic book accurate take during a recent set visit:
“There are many, many iterations of Braniac out there, so certain things I can probably tell you, and certain things I have to be a little coy about. I suppose the first thing I should say, is this is a Braniac you have never seen on screen before. This is a very different. I think the only time he’s ever been in live action is Smallville, where he was effectively self-aware AI, and in that version, he appeared as a 20th Century human professor. This one will not be like that. He will be infinitely more terrifying.”
Make no bones about it, I loved what James Marsters did with Brainiac during his tenure on Smallville, but his was a decidedly human appearance. Here, though, we see the Coluan we’ve come to be familiar with for the past decade or so in comic book land made reality.
But it doesn’t just end in appearance. Here’s what Ritson had to tease regarding characterization itself:
“This one is the full-fledged collector of worlds, so this version of Braniac is a hyper-intelligent alien android who is busy traversing the universe in his gigantic metal skull ship. He is effectively in the process of cataloging and absorbing all of creation.
He views each world as a form of a receptacle of intelligence, and he’s got to have it all. He rips a whole city from each planet before destroying it, or not, and then moves on. And the idea is, he then miniaturizes [the city], puts it into a tiny bottle on his ship, and sucks the information out of it — So he is basically in the process of becoming creation.”
Krypton premieres this Wednesday, March 21 on Syfy. For more, be sure to check out our review.
