Michael Shannon Compares The Flash Director To Zack Snyder

General Zod actor Michael Shannon compares DC’s The Flash director Andy Muschietti to Man of Steel’s Zack Snyder. Shannon is a very busy man. He’s known for TV roles like in Boardwalk Empire and Waco.

He’s also done theatre like Frankie and Johnny, Killer Joe and Bug. In film, he has been working since his first film Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, and recently, he’s in Bullet Train with Brad Pitt, and Amsterdam with Christian Bale. Now he’s even starting to direct a movie titled Eric Larue which is based on a play of the same name.

The actor will be reprising his role as General Zod in Ezra Miller’s The Flash. He played the main villain General Zod in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel back in 2013. It’s been pretty much a decade now since then. And his character died at the end of the film. So it was a surprise to him that he was asked to come back.

Michael Shannon Talks About Zack Snyder and Andy Muschietti

In an interview with the Looper, Michael Shannon talks about when he was asked to return to the role of General Zod.

I was a little confused. I said, “As memory serves me, I think I died in ‘Man of Steel.’ Are they sure they got the right guy?” But then they explained to me the whole multiverse phenomenon, which … I was a little behind the times on that.

The actor admitted to not being updated as to the current narrative in superhero movies. Further, he said:

I can’t say that I’m a huge consumer of this genre of films — not that I have anything against them. If I’m going to watch a movie, the odds are it’s not going to be one of those, but I sure love making them.

While it may not be his top choice of genre if he were to watch for entertainment, he certainly still is an actor through and through.

I loved making “Man of Steel,” and I love working with [director] Zack [Snyder], and I felt like it was actually, in a way, a fairly important film. It was nice to revisit the character.

With the span of time, he had to portray the role. It was clear to the actor that the movie as a whole would be essential for the franchise’s future.

I wasn’t there for a terribly long time. I was in and out in a couple of weeks, so it was a nice way to spend a bit of my summer in England. Andy’s a lovely guy and a great artist, visually, and I had a blast.

Michael Shannon gave some detail about the difference between his first and second portrayals. As this upcoming movie will showcase a different yet highly similar version, he still knew that the movie is about the hero’s journey. He concluded:

I tried to get back into his skin. He’s a little different in this film. He’s a little more … I don’t know how to put it. You don’t spend as much time with him, so you don’t really get to know as much about what he’s thinking. It’s not necessarily his movie. That’s the thing with these multiverse movies — you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But it’s really Ezra [Miller’s] movie.

General Zod Michael Shannon Talks About Two DC Directors

Michael Shannon Compares The Flash Director To Zack Snyder

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

In another interview with Collider, while promoting his comedy film A Little White Lie, he said about working with Muschietti:

Andy came highly recommended from other friends I have that have worked with him. Everybody who works with him just adores him. He’s really creative, I mean, much like Zack [Snyder] was, and very very visual. He’s a brilliant artist. He would just do these drawings while we were rehearsing and every time he did it I was like, “Can I keep that? That’s really amazing.” And I actually have one of them at home. But, yeah, really I would like to work with him again, frankly, if the opportunity arises because it was a lot of fun.

Saying that the second portrayal is a bit “more”, there is a possibility that Zod in The Flash could have more than just his mission as he did in Man of Steel. Any character in the upcoming movie who will have a different version has an opportunity to display a certain ‘unseen’ side.

However, the bottom line remains that he had positive work experience with both directors. Feeling that his first run as Zod was a highly important film which suggests to me that the production was more serious and intense than in The Flash. And that was something he found significant for Snyder. That experience made him welcome the chance to be Zod again.

In the upcoming movie, he recalled his experience with Muschietti in a more fun tone and in his words, he had a “blast”. Specifically recalling instances and repeatedly citing his amazement with regard to Muschietti’s visual skills, he knew art when he saw it.

While he experienced two distinctly different directing styles, he respects and values the insights of both. Likewise, he looks forward to the possibility of working with either of the two again someday.

What do you make of Michael Shannon’s comparison between Andy Muschietti and Zack Snyder? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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