If you haven’t seen “Man of Steel” yet, do not read this article. You have been warned.
In a reaction that should be understandable to anyone who was not a fan of the blockbuster Superman reboot’s controversial ending, Zack Snyder and screenwriter David S. Goyer claim that producer Christopher Nolan initially resisted the neck-snapping moment that leads to Zod’s demise, only coming around to the idea after some prodding. Here’s what Snyder had to say about it in a recent podcast interview with Empire (via the Playlist):
“In the original version of the script, Zod just got zapped into the Phantom Zone,” said the director, explaining how the idea came about. “But David, Chris and I had long talks about it, and I said that I really feel like we should kill Zod, and that Superman should kill him. The ‘Why?’ of it for me was that if was truly an origin story, his aversion to killing is unexplained… I wanted to create a scenario where Superman, either he’s going to see [Metropolis’ citizens] chopped in half, or he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do.”
Needless to say, Nolan wasn’t too keen on the idea right off the bat.
“[Chris] originally said, ‘There’s no way you can do this,'” noted Goyer. Nevertheless, “I came up with this idea of heat vision and these people about to die, and I wrote the scene, gave it to Chris, and he said, ‘Okay you’ve convinced me.'”
As for the rest of the DC cinematic universe, Goyer mentioned that Warner Bros.’ plans for the multi-film franchise will move in the “opposite direction” from Marvel’s, in that the planned team-up film (“Justice League”) will come prior to the standalone superhero films (save “Man of Steel,” of course).
“Obviously Warner Brothers hopes there will be a ‘Justice League’ film, and perhaps you might start seeing other characters appearing in each other”s films,” said Goyer on the podcast. “I think in some ways they”re interested in going perhaps the opposite direction that Marvel has done which may be to do a group film and then spin off.”
Thoughts on any of the above, superhero fanatics? Sound off in the comments.