Michael Shannon Opens Up About Working on ‘the Flash’ and Compares It to ‘Man of Steel’

The anticipated third-to-last DCEU movie ’The Flash’ is only five days away, and it’s going to be really interesting to see how the movie will perform commercially, given everything going on around that movie. Despite the fact that it’s part of a dying franchise and Ezra Miller’s legal problems, the fans are still looking forward to Michael Keaton’s return, and DC Studios’ co-CEO James Gunn swears that this movie is important for his upcoming soft-reboot cinematic universe — DCU.

‘The Flash’ currently holds 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the individuals who had the opportunity to see the movie since its first advanced screening at CinemaCon last April gave the movie mainly positive reviews. Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios really need a win with this movie after the commercial failures of ‘Black Adam’ and ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods,’ but it remains to be seen how much DC fans care about these last DCEU movies since the franchise is nearing its end.

Michael Shannon admits ‘The Flash’ wasn’t as satisfying to him as ‘Man of Steel’!

‘The Flash’ is undoubtedly a multiversal ride that will see the return of many known names. Of course, we don’t even need to emphasize Michael Keaton’s return to the role of Batman after more than three decades, but the movie will also feature several returns of DCEU characters, including Ben Affleck’s Batman and Michael Shannon’s General Zod.

Shannon previously mentioned how he asked for Zack Snyder’s blessing to reprise the role in ‘The Flash.’ but in a recent interview with Collider, the actor admitted that working on ‘The Flash’ wasn’t as satisfying as working on ’Man of Steel.’

“Yeah. I’m not gonna lie. It wasn’t quite satisfying for me, as an actor. These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures. It’s like, “Here’s this person. Here’s that person. And they’re fighting!” It’s not quite the in-depth character study situation that I honestly felt ‘Man of Steel’ was. Whether people think that’s crazy or not, I don’t even care. I really felt like ’Man of Steel’ was actually a pretty sophisticated story. I feel like ‘The Flash’ is too, but it’s not Zod’s story. I’m basically there to present a challenge.”

Michael Shannon for Collider

Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel,’ starring Henry Cavill in the title role, was released in 2013 as the first movie of the DC Extended Universe. The follow-up ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice,’ in which Cavill reprised his role and Ben Affleck debuted as Batman, was released three years later. Even though the movie grossed $873.6 million, it was deemed a box-office disappointment, especially since we’re talking about the first live-action movie that assembled Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman on the big screen.

After the critical and commercial failure of ‘Justice League’ in 2017, WB was looking for a new direction for DCEU, and even though some movies were commercially and critically successful (2017’s ‘Wonder Woman,’ and 2018’s ‘Aquaman’), the franchise wasn’t able to find the right course and the company, under the new leadership that came in 2022, decided to pull the plug and start a whole thing again from the ground up. ‘The Flash’ will serve as the breaking point between DCEU and DCU, and DCU will officially kick off with James Gunn’s ‘Superman: Legacy’ in July 2025.

‘The Flash’ will hit theaters worldwide on June 16, 2023.

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