Actor Michael Shannon, who, of course, played the evil Kryptonian General Zod in 2013’s Man of Steel, spoke for the very first time about reprising the character in The Flash movie.
Super Bowl 2023 brought audiences their first major look at Ezra Miller’s Flash film. Among the many notable characters in the trailer was General Zod, played again by Michael Shannon. But what was the fan-favorite actor’s stance on coming back to portray the DC character again?
Michael Shannon Discusses His Zod Reprisal
Speaking to Looper, Michael Shannon shared what lead him to come back as General Zod for 2023’s The Flash, noting that he was initially “a little confused.”
“I was a little confused. I said, 'As memory serves me, I think I died in ‘Man of Steel.’ Are they sure they got the right guy?' But then they explained to me the whole multiverse phenomenon, which ... I was a little behind the times on that. I can’t say that I’m a huge consumer of this genre of films — not that I have anything against them. If I’m going to watch a movie, the odds are it’s not going to be one of those, but I sure love making them.”
Shannon continued, mentioning that he found stepping back into the DCEU to be great fun.
“I loved making 'Man of Steel,' and I love working with [director] Zack [Snyder], and I felt like it was actually, in a way, a fairly important film. It was nice to revisit the character. I wasn’t there for a terribly long time. I was in and out in a couple of weeks, so it was a nice way to spend a bit of my summer in England. Andy’s a lovely guy and a great artist, visually, and I had a blast.”
Finally, the actor added that Zod is “a little different” in The Flash compared to his role Man of Steel:
“I tried to get back into his skin. He’s a little different in this film. He’s a little more ... I don’t know how to put it. You don’t spend as much time with him, so you don’t really get to know as much about what he’s thinking. It’s not necessarily his movie. That’s the thing with these multiverse movies — you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But it’s really Ezra [Miller’s] movie.”
Kneel Before Zod!
As far as big-screen villains go, Shannon’s Zod was a pretty memorable one. Showing great intensity and rage in the role, he more than posed a challenge to Henry Cavill’s then-fledgling Superman.
In The Flash, it’s clear that Barry Allen stumbled into an alternate universe where Zod rolls up to Earth, only this time, there’s no Superman to defend it. So fans may get to see Zod be even less restrained in his evil ways if such a thing was possible. That could be what Shannon meant when he said Zod would be “a little different” this time around.
Of course, there is another Kryptonian that exists in this alternative timeline, Supergirl, as portrayed by Sasha Calle. It seems quite likely that she and Zod will be on a collision course in the film.
It’s also interesting to note that while Shannon appreciates superhero films, they’re not exactly something that he goes out of his way to see. Looking at his own filmography, this policy probably applies to the projects he chooses to act in as well.
The Flash races into theaters on June 16, after many delays, plus being stuck in development limbo for quite some time.
