Home Entertainment Rumor: Michael Shannon may be playing who in BATMAN V SUPERMAN?!

Rumor: Michael Shannon may be playing who in BATMAN V SUPERMAN?!

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MichaelShannon__Zod

There are many things I can fault in Man of Steel, but Michael Shannon’s Zod was not one of them. He’s a villain whose not a straight-cut bad guy (in fact, it could be argued that Superman was being the dick here, as he could just have let Zod rebuild his new Krypton somewhere and everything would have been okay) and Shannon’s performance was just shouty enough, just physically imposing enough to chew scenery without becoming cheesy. So when [SPOILER ALERT FOR THE TWO PEOPLE WHO NEVER HEARD OF THIS] he ends up being killed at the end of the movie, it was actually quite a big loss to the franchise.

However, ever since we knew that Man of Steel would be getting a sequel in Batman v Superman: Shawn of (the dead) Justice, rumours have been circulating that somehow Shannon would be back on-screen again. These rumours were helped along dramatically when the actor was spotted with star Henry Cavill near the Batman v Superman set in Chicago in November last year. Now that rumour has resurfaced over on ComicBook.com, and they claim that not only will Shannon be back, but he will actually have a major role in the already stacked cast, despite still being very much dead.

Confused? Well, now this where I give you the obligatory warning about how none of this is confirmed, and there’s no solid evidence to back it up, but since this explanation could very well turn out to be true, be wary of the SPOILER WARNING! If you still want to read further, then scroll down past the pic.

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According to ComicBook.com‘s sources, Batman v Superman will see Lex Luthor looking to find some way to take out the powerful Superman, so he turns to the only other thing that’s been able to go toe-to-toe with Supes: Zod’s dead corpse. Luthor appropriates the body (whether illegally or not isn’t clear) and then begins experimenting on it to try and discover the Kryptonian’s weakness. However, due to his genetic probing he “triggers the Doomsday genome,” causing the corpse to reanimate and transform into a mindless killing machine, which he then carefully points in the direction of Superman.

41403-Doomsday

Doomsday is of course the name of crazy powerful Kryptonian creature that famously killed Superman – don’t worry, he got better – in the record-breaking “Death of Superman” story arc in the 1990’s. The rumours of Doomsday being included in the movie as Luthor’s muscle have been swirling for some time now, with Devin over BadAssDigest  claiming to have seen a draft of the script containing the monster and BleedingCool also claiming to have seen very Doomsday-like designs for the movie.

Once Doomsday transforms, the horned, monstrous character will more than likely be realized on screen as either a fully CG creation or with the performance of some hulking stunt actor in costume. This would explain why Shannon was only seen around the set for a short time, as he would only have needed to film the pre-transformation scenes. Shannon could of course play Doomsday as well, but that would be a severe waste of my talents.

That leads me to another point: Doomsday is a crap character. Yes, he may have been responsible for one of the biggest moments in Superman’s entire mythology, but he’s not so much a character as he is a walking, punching plot device. With practically no personally, he’s nothing more than violence incarnate, so bringing him in like this to be no more than the crux of the fight scene around which Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman team-up actually makes a lot of sense. Lots of people will be upset if the “Death of Superman” story arc wasn’t adapted as well, but that story is is little more than Superman being punched until he “died”. The End. That would make for a very horrible movie. So simplifying things like this and just using Doomsday as something to punch is a much better approach. He will be physically powerful enough to offer a legitimate threat, but still leave Luthor to be the true villain here, directing everything from behind the scenes as he should. Because really, nobody wants to see jacked-up Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck beat up scrawny Jesse Eisenberg for two hours. Seeing a reanimated Michael Shannon shouting at Eisenberg though…

Last Updated: January 26, 2015

5 Comments

  1. I liked Man of Steel. It had issues yes, but it was a very good Superman movie overall.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      January 26, 2015 at 13:09

      The biggest problems I had with the film were the “collateral damage” plot holes. But it looks like those were completely intentional, and could be used to set up the story for BvS.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 26, 2015 at 13:47

        Indeed, Batman takes offense to human casualties

        Reply

        • Ghost In The Rift

          January 26, 2015 at 16:05

          I just had a issue with the “liquid mercury” type technology they had, it seems mundane.

          Reply

  2. Lardus-Resident Perve

    January 26, 2015 at 18:44

    Looking forward to see what they do here.

    Reply

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