WARNING: the below article contains MAJOR SPOILERS regarding the ending of “Man of Steel.”
Fan backlash to Superman’s murder of General Zod in the final act of the superhero blockbuster came fast and furious over the summer, leaving director Zack Snyder on the defensive in a big way. Nevertheless, the filmmaker has continued to speak out in support of Supes’ action, most recently at a “Man of Steel” fan event held on Saturday evening.
“It’s a real world problem. I think the effect on Superman, it is a deeply difficult decision for him to make,” said Snyder at the Kevin Smith-hosted event. “It’s not a thing that he takes lightly, and you can see it affects him pretty profoundly. And maybe we’ll see the repercussions of that in the next film. How that’s affected him, making that decision… Maybe.”
The director went on to point out that the “unwritten rule” about Superman never killing exists only in the movies and not the comics, where the Last Son of Krypton has indeed taken lives before.
“He’s killed Zod a couple times in the comic books,” said Snyder. “Killing General Zod is a practical solution to the problem. He wouldn’t let his personal aversion to killing cost the lives of an entire planet or those little kids, that little family. So if he had said, ‘I’m just morally opposed to killing so I guess I have to let him kill those people.’ Those are the dilemmas. We set that up directly so there would be no solution other than that solution.”
“The Man of Steel” DVD/Blu-ray hits stores November 12. “Man of Steel 2” (a.k.a. “Superman vs. Batman”) is slated for release on July 17, 2015.
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(Yahoo! via Comic Book Movie)