Michael Shannon has addressed his return as General Zod in upcoming DC movie The Flash. The actor first played the role in Man of Steel, but died at the end of the film – he's returning for The Flash via multiversal shenanigans.
"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?'" Shannon told Looper of his return. "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."
He added: "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."
But, Shannon said, the character won't be the exact same as we last saw him. "I tried to get back into his skin. He's a little different in this film," the actor commented. "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. It's not necessarily his movie. That's the thing with these multiverse movies – you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But it's really Ezra [Miller]'s movie."
The Flash will take inspiration from the Flashpoint comic book storyline, which saw Barry Allen accidentally break the timeline when travelling back to save his mother. This time, he inadvertently creates a world without superheroes – which becomes a major problem when General Zod arrives. Barry must turn to Michael Keaton's retired Batman for help, and help break Sasha Calle's Supergirl out of captivity to fight back. Ben Affleck also returns as his version of Batman in the movie.
The movie will arrive in theaters this June 16. In the meantime, get up to speed on all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows with our guide through the link.
