Just like Christopher Reeve and Tom Welling were unknown young newcomers when they were cast to play Superman on the big and small screens, Syfy’s Superman prequel Krypton has cast an unknown young actor, Cameron Cuffe, for the lead, Superman’s grandfather. Warner Horizon, whose broadcast parent Warner Bros. TV cast Welling in Smallville, is the studio.

Based on the DC Comics characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Krypton, which has a pilot order, is set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet. It follows Superman’s grandfather Seg-El (Cuffe) — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed — as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.

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 joins young British actress Georgina Campbell who was cast in the pilot as the female lead of Lyta Zod.

The London-born Cuffe is a graduate of The Lir Academy in Dublin, Ireland. He has done several stage productions and appeared in the Stephen Frears–directed feature Florence Foster Jenkins. He also recurs on the upcoming ITV drama The Halcyon. Cuffe is repped by Gersh, Untitled Entertainment and The Artists Partnership.

David S. Goyer and showrunner Damian Kindler executive produce Krypton for Warner Horizon and Goyer’s Phantom Four. Colm McCarthy serves as co-executive producer and will direct the pilot from a story and teleplay by Goyer & Ian Goldberg. The pilot will be filmed in Serbia.