The first trailer for “The Flash” film finally showed off Michael Keaton returning to the role of Batman, and gave us a first look at Sasha Calle as Supergirl.
Both reveals were expected, but one genuine surprise was the return of Michael Shannon in the role of “Man of Steel” villain General Zod. The character died in the 2013 film, killed by Henry Cavill’s Superman, yet here he was.
A subsequent synopsis for “The Flash” film explains that Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen runs back in time to 2013, kicking off a whole Flashpoint style event and causing changes to the universe around him – inadvertently creating a world without superheroes and allowing for the return of Zod.
Speaking with Looper recently, Shannon says he was as surprised as anyone when the offer came in to reprise General Zod:
“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. 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 [Muschietti, director]’s a lovely guy and a great artist, visually, and I had a blast.”
Shannon also says the character will be a little different in this film saying: “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.”
Ben Affleck also returns as his version of Batman in the movie which will arrive in theaters on June 16th.
