With Gotham attracting an audience by being so-bad-its-good as well as Arrow and The Flash picking up viewers who genuinely like those series, and a Supergirl show in development for CBS, it’s no surprise that Warner Bros. might be looking to set up yet another live-action series based on one of their iconic heroes. According to Bleeding Cool, Warner Bros. has hired Man of Steel screenwriter David Goyer to create Krypton, which would take place before the planet went ka-boom (I presume a series set afterwards would be a more meditative piece as every episode gazes into an abyss for 44 minutes).

Hit the jump for more.

Bleeding Cool doesn’t have any further details on what Krypton (unofficial title) might be, but it’s a prospect that’s far more exciting than Gotham. My favorite part of Man of Steel was everything that happened on Krypton, and while a weekly TV series wouldn’t be able to come close to matching the film’s visual effects, there’s always been a large, interesting society behind Superman’s birth planet.

One of the key parts of Superman’s origin is that Jor-El’s warnings about the planet’s destruction were ignored, so what does that tell us about the Kryptonian people? What are their politics? How does their society function? How would they deal with Brianiac or other extraterrestrial foes Superman will face in the future? What’s the deal with the space dildos?

I know it may be a tougher sell to make a Superman show without Superman, but as Gotham shows, it’s still pretty tough to make a Batman show with a kid Batman. But through the character of Jor-El, Krypton could give us an idea of who Superman might have become had his planet not been destroyed. There’s enough of a hook to get people watching, but more than enough room to build a fresh mythology that wouldn’t be weighted down by Superman’s destiny.

Or it could just have a young Lex Luthor looking through a telescope and cackling.