Once General Zod had his neck snapped by Superman in the climax of Man of Steel, most of us probably assumed that this was the last we’d see of Michael Shannon in the DC Cinematic Universe. Granted, comic book deaths are rarely permanent, but Zod fulfilled his purpose of making Kal-El make an impossible decision to save his adoptive planet. However, some have suspected his involvement isn’t quite over. Michael Shannon was seen last November on the set of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice in Chicago hanging out with Henry Cavill, and now it’s being reported that not only will Shannon appear in the 2016 blockbuster, his role may be even bigger than it was in Man of Steel.
According to Comicbook.com, Lex Luthor will obtain Zod’s body and run experiments on it, most likely to find out if Superman has a weakness. While experimenting, he’ll accidentally trigger the "Doomsday genome," causing Zod’s body to reanimate into the Kryptonian monster. They also described Doomsday as being the "key to the DC Cinematic Universe going forward," meaning that he may have some role to play in other DC movies. Zod’s corpse being involved in the plot was rumored several months back, although there was no connection to Doomsday mentioned at the time. Doomsday himself has been mentioned to appear several times, with one report saying that he and Superman will fight during the film.
If Doomsday’s inclusion is real, it sounds like Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will be influenced by the 1993 story The Death of Superman, which saw Doomsday beating the Man of Steel to death. In the comics, Doomsday is the creation of an alien scientist that sought to create the perfect weapon. Enter Doomsday, who was forced to survive in the harsh conditions of prehistoric Krypton. Eventually Doomsday killed the scientist and went on a rampage across the universe, which eventually brought him to Earth.
While Shannon may briefly appear in the film laying on one of Luthor’s slabs, once his corpse starts to mutate, he won’t look anything remotely human. So unless Shannon is doing the motion-capture work, Doomsday will either be an all-CGI creation or someone else will be the one performing the actions. The important thing is that the Doomsday we see in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice closely resembles his comic book incarnation, i.e. massive, ripped and bones extruding everywhere. Don’t go the route Spider-Man 3 went with Venom and give us a watered down version. Give us something like the Doomsday we know and love, as seen above. That’s who we want in an epic brawl with Superman and possibly other DC superheroes.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25, 2016.
