When Man of Steel was released in 2013, Zack Snyder’s creative liberties with the source material quickly became a point of contention. Over a decade later, the filmmaker continues to defend the film, including the scene in which Superman kills General Zod.
While breaking down some of his films in an interview with GQ, Snyder doubled down on his belief that Superman was right to use lethal force. “He’s not going to stop. He wasn’t going to negotiate an outcome, so it was either Zod or us,” the director explained, referring to a scene in Man of Steel when Zod is about to kill a group of people with heat vision. “And that was pretty much the game. There was no like middle ground.”
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“Zod said he would fight until either you kill me or I kill you,” Snyder continued. The filmmaker also explained why he chose to place Superman in an impossible situation.” If Superman can’t handle that position, then he’s fake, then he’s not… You got to like… He’s got to address the scenarios that come to him. He can’t pick and choose, as you can’t pick and choose when something is outside of your morality.”
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In the same interview, Snyder explained the logic behind Jonathan Kent silently telling Clark to let him die in the middle of a tornado. “The conversation is exactly what he [Superman] says to Lois,” the director said. He then continued from Superman’s perspective. “I let my father die to protect the idea that my father was trying to protect, the idea that I wasn’t ready to be outed to the world because I wasn’t Superman.”
“I’m just a teenager that could’ve made a mess of it. I have the power to do it, but have I ever used my powers in this way,” Snyder added on behalf of the Superman character. “I trusted that his vision for what I could be was bigger than him. This little incident in Kansas was not the thing that was going to expose me to the world.”
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Despite the controversy, Man of Steel was a commercial success, earning over $668 million at the global box office and becoming the highest-grossing solo Superman film of all time. A new Superman movie, created by James Gunn, is set to be released in 2025. Snyder recently expressed his support for the film, saying, “I’m a pretty open book. I really feel like, you know, if the characters are treated with reverence and mythologically correct, then I’m down. I’m in. Let’s see what happens. I’m pretty excited.”
Source: GQ
Man of Steel
An alien child is evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans. His peace is threatened when other survivors of his home planet invade Earth.
- Director
- Zack Snyder
- Release Date
- June 14, 2013
- Cast
- Henry Cavill , Amy Adams , Michael Shannon , Kevin Costner , Diane Lane , Laurence Fishburne
- Runtime
- 143 minutes
- Franchise(s)
- DC Extended Universe