Michael Shannon to Play "General Zod" in new Superman Movie

Hurm.

Well, it sounds like Snyder is "re-imagining" Superman as, pretty much, Superman.  Actor Michael Shannon (who I know from Boardwalk Empire) will play rogue Kryptonian General Zod, who was condemned to the Phantom Zone (a sort of trandimensional prison) just prior to the destruction of Krypton.

Our villain

In the comics, Zod was a fairly minor villain, even for a Phantom Zone villain.

In the comics, Zod would go on to lead a pink-clad marching band

Nonetheless, Superman II turned General Zod into a crowd favorite.  After the relaunch of the Superman titles in the mid-1980's, several attempts were made to bring Zod into mainstream Superman lore.  Seriously.  Several.  None took, and if you want to see a map of a continuity mess prior to 2006's Infinite Crisis, I would point to DC's handling of Zod as Phantom Zone menace, pocket-world Kryptonian menace, alien symbiote-thing menace...


In 2007, Zod returned to the DCU, and despite the weakness of the conclusion to New Krypton and War of the Supermen, its safe to say that Johns' Last Son storyline brought the cinematic trio of Zod, Ursa and Non squarely into the comics, and have put Zod into continuity.

That's neither here nor there in relation to the movies, but as Zod is so tied in with Superman in the public's understanding of Superman, its good to have the comics and movies match up a bit better.

The 2009-2010 season of Smallville also featured a version of Zod, as well as a prior season (that I didn't watch.  Maybe 2005?), so TV has seen its fair share of Zod, too. 

I'm very pleased by the casting, if not the choice of villain (can a man get a Brianiac?).  Shannon was the most interesting part of Boardwalk Empire, and I think that's saying something.