The DC Universe is wildly unpredictable at this point, and we were certainly shocked to learn that Michael Shannon was going to join The Flash cast, reprising his role as General Zod. It turns out that the only person more surprised might have been Shannon himself.
Shannon first played one of the best DC villains in the 2013 movie Man of Steel, in which Zod squared off against the most recent of the big screen Superman actors, Henry Cavill. Zod was controversially killed by Kal-El in the finale of that adventure, with Superman forced to snap Zod’s neck to save a family.
Death is no barrier for Zod in new movies, it seems, with The Flash release date set to reintroduce us all to Shannon as he aims to become one of the best movie villains ever.
Shannon, though, confided to Empire in the newest issue of the magazine that he never wanted to play Zod in the DC movies again, and that the character’s death had been a big reason he said yes in the first place.
“I didn’t see myself playing Zod again, because he was dead. It’s actually one of the reasons I made Man of Steel in the first place – it was a one-and-done,” said the actor.
He added: “So I was pretty shocked to hear about this reprisal of the role. But I like the story that The Flash is telling and I wasn’t there for a long amount of time – I was just there a couple of weeks – so it didn’t break my back to do it.”
It’s truly the multiverse era for the best superhero movies. Heroes are both alive and dead, villains are both alive and dead, and all bets are off. Sometimes it’s thrilling, but sometimes it feels very lazy indeed.
We’ll get to learn more about Zod’s return as The Flash movie villain and where it falls on that spectrum when the new film arrives in cinemas. While you wait, check out our The Flash review to see what we thought of the movie, and alternatively find out about how The Flash adds James Gunn to the DCU.
As for the future, we’ve explained all of the best movies coming as part of James Gunn’s Chapter 1 Gods and Monsters era. So dig deep into the Superman Legacy release date, The Brave and the Bold release date, and the Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow release date.