When the secondBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justicetrailer debuted at Comic-Con this summer, fans clearly saw the corpse ofGeneral Zodfrom 2013’sMan of Steel. The reveal wasn’t entirely surprising, since there had been rumors about Zod’s corpse being integrated into the story for months. But then things took a turn for the weird last month.Michael Shannonrevealed in an interview withVulturethat he got stuck in a Porta-Potty on theBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justiceset, because he was wearing “flippers instead of hands” as a part of his costume. Naturally, this raised tons of questions about Zod’s involvement, with some speculating that Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is turning Zod into Doomsday. As it turns out, the story is all fake, asMichael Shannonrevealed toThe Daily Beastthat his “flipper” story was all a big fun lie.
“Somebody was asking me about this in New York and I made up some ridiculous bulls–t answer about how my character Zod has flippers, and this went viral on the Internet or something and people have been asking me about that. That is so obviously a complete bullshit story, right? But people took it seriously.”
Michael Shannonwas spotted on the Chicago set ofBatman v Superman Dawn of Justicelast fall withHenry Cavill, but the actor revealed that he didn’t actually do work on the set in costume. He did confirm that he did come in to do some voice over work, comparing his role toRussell Crowe’s performance inMan of Steel, where he appears as a ghost to his son Kal-El (Henry Cavill) even after his death. Here’s whatMichael Shannonhad to say about his ghost role inBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
“I wasn’t there. It’s a really awkward situation-I’m in thetrailerfor a movie that I didn’t work on. The thing about the whole Krypton universe, apparently, is that even when you destroy them, there are ghosts. The first [film], Jor-El is there even though he’s been dead for lord knows how long. I went over and did some voice-over stuff because it’s like that ghost thing. But I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that. I get very nervous.”
When asked if he would come back to wear “flipper hands” in a sequel toBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,Michael Shannongave another interesting response, casually mentioningDoomsday. The actor also added that he would love to work withMan of SteelandBatman v Superman: Dawn of JusticedirectorZack Snyderagain. Here’s what he had to say about adding Doomsday toBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s follow-up.
“Maybe they should add it, I don’t know! Maybe in Part 3, Doomsday will have flipper hands. I mean, look-nothing would make me happier than to work withZack Snyderagain, he’s hysterical and he’s a lot of fun to work with.”
All we know for sure is thatMichael Shannonwill have some sort of vocal presence as Zod’s ghost inBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but what do you think of this whole “flipper hands” story? And if he does appear as some sort of a Kryptonian ghost, will he interact with Superman? Hopefully we’ll find out more details about Zod’s presence inBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justicesoon, but until then, chime in with your thoughts.
