Michael Shannon Shares Key Advice for the Next General Zod in James Gunn’s DCU

James Gunn is hard at work rebooting the former DCEU and building a new cinematic universe based on DC properties. The most important project to release during the first Chapter is ‘Superman’ scheduled for a 2025 release.

We know that the upcoming movie will be a hard reboot of the established character as well as his supporting characters. Gunn has brought in a new fresh faces to the franchise David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult to act as the core of Superman’s world.

This means that one of Superman’s most famous enemies, General Zod will be recast as well. Michael Shannon portrayed General Zod in the DCEU. He is a Kryptonian military leader determined to rebuild Krypton on Earth, no matter the cost. Shannon’s intense performance and powerful presence made Zod a standout villain, even if ‘Man of Steel’ somewhat left a bitter taste when it comes to Superman’s portrayal.

Though Shannon didn’t actively appear in the film, Zod’s corpse played a significant role in ‘Batman V Superman.’ Lex Luthor used Zod’s body to create the monstrous Doomsday, which became a major plot point. Shannon’s last appearance as Zod was in ‘The Flash’ released in 2023, however, his scenes took place in alternate timelines.

Shannon isn’t upset about losing his role as General Zod. In an interview with Screen Rant, he shared his thoughts on making ‘Man of Steel’ and offered advice for the next actor to play Zod.

He explained that while filming ‘Man of Steel,’ he didn’t focus on it being a big blockbuster; instead, he just focused on the story and the situation. He however has one key advice for his successor. The actor to assume the mantle of Zod this time around shouldn’t emulate his performance:

What Terence Stamp did was very different from what I did. It’s kind of like Shakespeare. There can be a lot of different Hamlets, and there can be a lot of different Zods. It’s not my property. It’s literally not my property. So, make it your own. That’s always the best thing to do.

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Shannon said he didn’t see Zod as just a supervillain, but as someone simply trying to do his job and protect his people. He mentioned that many of the characters he’s played are similar, in that they’re all trying to protect those they care about. He also noted that another actor might approach Zod’s motivation differently.

The actor’s explanation for his take on the character sounds a lot like what Snyder was aiming for. The director recently explained why Superman simply had to kill Zod, there was never an easy choice to make, not for Superman and not for Zod:

 Zod’s not wrong from his point of view, but also, there’s no really room for humans in this scenario that Zod’s presenting and he’s not gonna stop. He wasn’t gonna negotiate an outcome, so it was either Zod or us. And that was pretty much the game. There was no like middle ground. Zod said, “He would fight until either you kill me or I kill you.”

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