KRYPTON Casts Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El, Superman's Grandfather

The Man of Steel has a grandfather.

Deadline is reporting that the pilot for Syfy's Superman prequel Krypton has cast newcomer Cameron Cuffe as Superman's grandfather, Seg-El.  Cuffe will be the lead actor on the series, joining Georgina Campbell as Lyta Zod.

According to the article, Seg-El is described as "Destined to be the ancestor of Jor-El (future father of Superman) and Kal-El (the future Superman), Seg-El is the scion of the once prosperous El family and is blessed with an intuitive brilliance for all things technical; he is now living in Krypton’s lowest caste after his family was stripped of its rank."

Cuffe is a British actor who has appeared in the film Florence Foster Jenkins and will be appearing on the upcoming ITV drama series The Halcyon.

Krypton is set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel's home planet and will follow Superman's grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed — as he fights to redeem his family's honor and save his beloved world from chaos.

David S. Goyer and showrunner Damian Kindler will serve as executive producers on Krypton for Warner Bros. TV and Goyer’s Phantom Four.  Colm McCarthy serves as co-executive producer and will direct the pilot from a story and teleplay by Goyer and Ian Goldberg.

Created in 1988 by John Byrne and Mike Mignola, Seyg-El (note the spelling) first appeared in World of Krypton (vol.2) #3 as the father of Jor-El and grandfather to Kal-El, who becomes Superman.

Seyg-El was a noble Lord of the House of El, one of the most respected families on all of the planet, Krypton.  The Master of the Gestation Chambers selected Seyg-El from the Register of Citizens to mate with a woman of compatible genetic lineage.  Together they sired a son whom Seyg-El named, Jor-El.

Seyg-El's relationship with Jor-El lacked any true familial passion, and he regarded his son as an embarrassing maverick who was ignorant of proper Kryptonian traditions.  Jor-El brought his father additional embarrassment when he requested to actually meet the woman with whom he would procreate.  Seyg-El considered such an appeal extremely unorthodox by the sterile traditions of Kryptonian culture, and subsequently flew into a rage. However, the Master of the Gestation Chambers granted the request, and Jor-El soon married the young librarian, Lara.