Michael Shannon was confused when asked to return as General Zod for The Flash : ‘I think I died’

When The Flash unveiled its first official trailer during this year’s Super Bowl, Michael Keaton’s Batman wasn’t the only character from DC’s past to make a grand return: Michael Shannon also showed up to reprise his role as General Zod from Man of Steel.

If viewers were confused at Zod’s appearance in the trailer, then they had the exact same reaction Shannon did when The Flash director Andy Muschietti asked him to return for the new film.

“I was a little confused,” Shannon says in a new interview with Looper. “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.”

Michael Shannon as General Zod in ‘Man of Steel.’

Warner Bros. Pictures Michael Shannon as General Zod in ‘Man of Steel.’

Shannon’s memory does serve him correctly. In fact, Zod’s death at the hands of Superman (Henry Cavill) in Man of Steel was and remains a huge point of contention between that film’s critics and its defenders. Shannon, for his part, is fond of Zack Snyder’s 2013 film, and didn’t mind returning to the character — once he wrapped his head around the multiverse, that is.

“I loved making Man of Steel, and I love working with Zack, and I felt like it was actually, in a way, a fairly important film,” Shannon says. “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’s a lovely guy and a great artist, visually, and I had a blast.”

Based in part on the 2011 event comic Flashpoint, The Flash will find Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) going back in time to prevent his mother’s murder. But, in doing so, he will change the timeline — making it so that Superman isn’t around to fight back against Zod’s invasion this time. Thankfully, the Flash will have Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl to help him fix things.

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The Flash will sprint into theaters on June 16.

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