Well, now. Michael Shannon’s one of my favorite actors: a seriously underrated talent who steals the show in suburban dramas like REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and tentpole spectacles like PEARL HARBOR with the same skill. He got a deservedly bigger spotlight put on him recently with BOARDWALK EMPIRE and the spotlight’s only going to get wider now that he’ll be playing the main villain in Zack Snyder’s SUPERMAN movie (the title of which has finally been confirmed as MAN OF STEEL.) Deadline got the scoop over the weekend that he’ll be playing the rogue Kryptonian, General Zod, a role that Terrence Stamp made iconic in SUPERMAN II. Incidentally, this will actually be Shannon’s second DC Comics movie, as he most recently starred in the circus ringleader, Dr. Cross Williams, in JONAH HEX.

Zod always seemed like he was going to be on track for the next Supes movie, anyway. I remember Jude Law being rumored pretty heavily for the part when Bryan Singer was still planning to go ahead with his follow-up to SUPERMAN RETURNS. That aside, this confirmation’s more-or-less proof positive that this will be a decidedly more "agro" take on the Man of Tomorrow. Unlike Luthor, we’ve got a villain here who can make Supes suffer thoroughly without the aid of Kryptonite. I expect the fists, heat beams and maybe even plastic "S" nets to fly.

I love him in Boardwalk Empire! A great choice

meh, I was hoping for someone other than Zod.  At least its not luthor. 

and reboot is over. seriously? get another villians that hasn't been in any superman movies. he has more then zod and lex

Well Zod that, what could have been an interesting and invigorating movie reboot just fell flat.

Wonder when the other two are goning to be announced?

I just don't see it.

I'll just wait and see how it turns out.

I feel pretty excited about this. All I wanted was a villain Superman could trade blows with and now I have it. Snyder as director? It's gonna be an action spectacle!

Hopefully with Nolan supervising, there will be a decent story to go along with the plastic S throws.

I've never found Zod to be that compelling of a villain. Maybe he'll be cool in the movie. Who knows?

@TheWeatherMan: Yes!  That plastic "S" frisbee throw was the best part of the fight!

On a funny note: The "S" on Superman could now be used as Zack Snyder jokes for "Slow Motion" (yup and I just saw Sucker Punch last weekend).  

P.S.

I want the return of Goldilock--I mean... Nuclear Man.

Sick of Zod. I get how he's relevant, considering this is more or less a reboot, but Brainiac's a far more interesting character. DC just loves recycling characters....

Anyone but Zod. Although Agent "Van Alden" is perfect for the role, lol

Already knew this, was posted on Screened yesterday. Anyways I'm glad to see Zod as he's one of my favorite Superman villains. Have no idea who this guy is but I'm sure he'll be fine. Though I do want to see what Terrence Stamp has to say about this actor.

I was sick of Lex with trio of dumb henchmen, straight from the old Superman movie. Give me the real Lex, with wonders of modern techmology and power suit! Instead they use "kryptonite knife" again!
So I'm excited to see Zod vs Superman battle!

Wow now that could be interesting both as a character and with him playing it.. certian has my interest peeked.

Wow I didn't know Zod had this many haters O_o

Be nice to see a harder edged version of the villain.. see how they bring the ideas more up to date.. i'm still on board.

Thank god they didn't cast jude Law as Zod. That would have been tragic 

Interesting, but again..like with Dark Knight Rises, why do we have to have villains that have already been done? I'm still stoked for the film, however.

I do hope Lex does appear in the movie, I just don't want him to be the main villain.

As for Zod, I'm glad he's in this movie, at least he'll be able to fight Superman instead of Lex Luthor who just tricks Supes into wearing Kryptonite necklaces.

I hope in the sequel they have either Bizarro as the villain or Braniac.

i love the actor...super talented...........YAY for Zod

At first I thought "Zod again?"
But I agree with everything written in the article about Michael Shannon and believe he'll make the role a great one.

Great actor this should be good.

<- Would you kneel before this man? LOLZ

zod is such a smuck, i wanted darkseid

Meh.

Shoulda been metallo or braniac. why pick a villain that has already been in a movie when Supes has so many that could still be  adapted?

Ugh, Zod.

I love Superman, and while capable, I don't think "lateral thinking" is one of the traits that immediately springs to mind when listing Superman's most iconic abilities.  Given that Clark is a farm boy and Zod is a seasoned military veteran, the only way Superman can win is by some sort of oddball trickery that's outside what makes Superman iconic.

That's exactly what happened in Superman II.

Despite the theory of a cool knock-down drag-out fight, realistically, between Zod's numbers, expertise, and disregard for collateral damage, it was Superman getting beat up the entire film until he won based on throwing his shield, finger beams, and crystal chamber hijinks.  When was the last time you said, "Superman should win because he's got a chamber in his Fortress he can trick people into!"?

Instead, you say, Superman's strong, fast, can fly, has heat vision, is invulnerable, etc.  But in a match against someone his physical equal, you won't see that come to bear as what makes Superman win.  The thing that makes the hero win should be iconic  to them and relatively unique in the film (Batman should win because of his attitude, theatricality, physicality, and gadgets; Spidey should win because of agility, intelligence, and webs; etc).

With identical powers a victory based on those iconic powers is lost or made arbitrary.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm sorry I'm sure Michael Shannon is a very good actor but we have only had 2 real Superman villains in Superman films. Lex Luthor and General Zod. Now in the Spider-Man films they had Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Venom and Sandman. In the Batman films (all of them) they've had Catwoman, Ra's Al Ghul, the Joker, Two Face, the Riddler and more. Now it's time to expand Superman's rogue gallery to the public. It's a reboot give them a fresh villain for Supes to fight. Brainiac would've been perfect because he has a Krypton connection already (if you take into account the Supes animated series) and the android/Coluan aspect would have provided a cool skull shaped ship, a robot army and foe who is a physical match for Superman as well.

Again?

LOVE THE ACTOR! And a great choice for Zod, thought he would have made a good Dr. Doom as well, but not thrilled about another viewing of Zod, but I'm still on board, plus I have a feeling Brainiac will still be in this as well. If he is then i'm fully sold. Great actor choice, he could have been jimmy Olson and i would have been happy ha ha

If this is an origin story reboot, then I think I have a theory. Once Clark becomes Superman, Zod will be released somehow, resulting in a battle between the two. Zod's cruelty and destruction will cause Lex Luthor to develop a fear of the destructive nature of Kryptonians, which leads to his hatred of Superman. In the sequel, I can see Lex creating villians(I'm thinking Metallo and Parasite) to fight Superman. Let's just say that Lex creates a computer A.I. that helps him, but eventually becomes sentient and becomes Brainiac. Somewhere in this new set of movies, Lex(or Braniac) creates the ultimate weapon to combat Superman(probably Doomsday or Bizarro, or a combination of the two).

I can't believe the lack of faith people have...  The real reaction should be:

Awww Zod... Oh wait Nolan is doing this, nevermind, it will be badass.

Dude if you're going to get a director like Zack Snyder who you know is going to MacGuyver some

green screen and CGI into a movie WHY NOT GIVE US DARK SIDE!!!???

Well, i wanted another villain than Zod that Superman could fight, but at least we will get a fight.

"Oh wait Nolan is doing this, nevermind, it will be badass. "

Man, and I really hoped the rumor of Viggo Mortensen being Zod was true.

.......I'm so glad they don't try new villains because who likes new things? If it's not Lex then it's Zod. Doesn't Hollywood know there are so many more villains than just two? Why can't we get Bizzaro or Staro or something very different like golden age Sups and his odd transformations from Red-K.

I was hoping for Metallo......having said that I don't get the argument about retreading villains. Wasn't Joker in previous films?? And Dark Knight turned out incredible! In the comics Zod is a great character and there's plenty of gold to mine there..IMHO

sigh, Zod again? Common guys, Braniac is PERFECT!

If Zod is involved, I HOPE it also means some other baddies might be involved as well, maybe some villain Zod has control over or in his employ to battle Superman.  That  would be great. 

While not overtly excited at least it isn't Luthor again, unless he will be involved as well.  Haven't read up on the Supes news of late.  Still, I am hoping for something more action-driven and not a total massacre of what Superman is like the last movie. 

 Superman writes himself, I fail to see why the studios fail can't get him right.  Oh, I know, because everyone wants to put their "take" on the character instead of honoring him and giving us decent movies with decent plots!

Oh how marvellous, it's zzzzzzzzzzzzZod - I loved Superman 2 but somehow managed to escape 'Kneel before Zod' imprinting on my brain.

Mongul, Darkseid, Parasite, Metallo, Bizarro, Gog, Brainiac, Ultraman, Preus, Doomsday, ect...Why not choose one of those?

Oh why can't they use other super-villains? It's always Luthor or Zod. Seeing them in so many of the movies and television shows, I rather see anyone besides those two in a movie. I wouldn't even care if they build up for one of them to be in the next installment, but at this point, I rather see anyone else be the villain in a superman movie: Metallo, Parasite, Bloodsport, hell, even another superhero's villain could be in this

I was hoping for Bizarro.

Lex always failing at taking out Superman. Decides to make a Superman clone to ruin Supermans rep and to take him out. End up being an imperfect Superman that's borderline retarded(but strong as hell) and him and Superman duke it out in an epic battle.

I'd be sold.

hell no zod what the hell boo