Seg-El is the name given to Superman's grandfather, and relatively unknown actor Cameron Cuffe has been signed to play him in the TV pilot, Krypton.
Being produced by Syfy, the premise serves as something of a prequel to the well-known Superman mythos, taking place two generations before Krypton's destruction and the sending of baby Kal-El by his parents, Jor-El and Lara,to Earth. There, of course, he grows up to become the Man Of Steel. Krypton explores the ostracizing of the El family and the efforts of Seg-El to restore honor to the family name while simultaneously attempting to save the planet from the chaos that has engulfed it.
The script is written by David S. Goyer and Ian Goldberg, the pilot's director is Colm McCarthy and filming will take place in Serbia.
The British-born Cuffe graduated from Dublin, Ireland's The Lir Academy and appeared in the film Florence Foster Jenkins. Next year he'll be seen in the ITV drama The Halcyon, which the network describes as telling the story of a bustling and glamorous five star hotel at the centre of London society and a world at war in 1940.
Cuffe joins actress Georgina Campbell, who plays Lyta Zod, suggesting that problems between the El and Zod families have long been in place.