When Superman snapped Zod’s neck in Man of Steel, naturally that marked the end of the Kryptonian general’s story in the DC Extended Universe… at least in life, since his corpse was used to create Doomsday in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. However, with The Flash seeing Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen travel through the multiverse, we’ll meet a different version of Zod in this 2023 new movie release. But Michael Shannon only agreed to appear in The Flash on one condition, which involved director Zack Snyder.
Ahead of The Flash’s arrival in theaters, Shannon sat down with Vanity Fair to go over some of his biggest roles, which includes reprising Zod in the upcoming DC movie. After discussing how he was initially confused by the multiverse concept, the actor had this to say:
I was very upset by what happened with Zack on the Justice League [movie] and all that. It didn’t feel right to me. Now I know that I probably don’t know all the sides to the story, I should probably just keep my mouth shut, but like I said, I really, really, really love Zack and really appreciated that opportunity. But then I talked to Andy [Muschietti], who’s also a lovely guy and very, very creative and fun. I said, ‘Hey, I would really feel awkward about doing it without Zack’s blessing, so until I get that, you’re just going to have to wait.’ So I reached out to Zack, and he gave me his blessing and said, ‘It’s ok, go ahead. You can do it.’ And I appreciated that and I said yes.
The Flash’s Michael Shannon Addresses Ezra Miller’s Controversies
Following his work on Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder returned to helm Justice League, but he left the team-up movie after principal photography wrapped, which is what Michael Shannon was referring to in the interview. We won’t go over the circumstances behind that exit here, but because Shannon was displeased by what went down, he wasn’t willing to sign onto The Flash unless Snyder was ok with it. Fortunately, the Army of the Dead filmmaker gave his blessing, so Shannon was free to step back into General Zod’s shoes once more and collaborate with director Andy Muschietti.
Just like in Man of Steel, this other General Zod arrives on Earth with his followers to terraform it into a new Krypton, only instead of facing Superman as his chief obstacle, he’ll confront two versions of Barry Allen, Michael Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl. But just because Shannon played Zod in a similar scenario to what he’d done a decade before, that didn’t mean working on The Flash was similar to his experience on Man of Steel. He continued:
It was a very different thing because Man of Steel was like a year of my life, between the training, we did a whole summer of physical training leading up to the shooting. The shoot was like six months long or something. I was in and out of Flash in… like a flash, like two or three weeks, that’s it. The Flash isn’t my story. I’m there as an adversary, a threat, a problem to be dealt with. The Flash is really The Flash’s story.
It is indeed poetically ironic that Michael Shannon didn’t spend nearly as long working on The Flash compared to Man of Steel, but that doesn’t make his Zod any less dangerous. On top of vanquishing him though, the main version of Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen will need to figure out a way to return to his universe after ending up in this alternate reality without metahumans when he traveled back in time to stop his mother’s murder. The Flash is also a big deal because along with being one of the final DCEU movies, it’ll reset continuity and pave the way for the new DC Universe franchise, with the Chapter One slate being called Gods and Monsters.
The Flash races into theaters on June 16, but in the meantime, you can kick off watching the DC movies in order by streaming Man of Steel with a Max subscription. Michael Shannon also recently reprised Gary Noesner in Waco: The Aftermath, the miniseries that can be viewed if you have the Showtime add-on for your Paramount+ subscription.
