Michael Shannon explains why he turned down STAR WARS but said yes to MAN OF STEEL and THE FLASH

Michael Shannon he is a wonderfully talented actor who has given some truly incredible performances throughout his career. He never seemed like the type of actor who would join a big-budget tent pole franchise and has turned down roles in Star Wars and Marvel franchises throughout his career. However, he has signed up for two DC movies included Man of Steel AND The flash. Why did he reject other franchises but join the DC party?

During a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Shannon opened up about why she mostly stays away from big movie franchises, saying:

“I’m always a little wary of those giant movies because they take a long time and I don’t find them very challenging to work on. I never want to get stuck in a franchise. If I’m making something, I want there to be some sort of purpose. I don’t want to make mindless entertainment. The world doesn’t need more mindless entertainment. We are inundated with it.”

So, the actor wants to make sure he’s involved in a movie that tells an interesting story, and as it turns out, that’s exactly what he saw in Zack Snyder. Man of Steel, making him agree to play General Zod. He explained that he thought the film told “a very relevant story”.

“It’s basically about looking at one civilization that destroyed its planet and thinking that the solution is to go and destroy another. When you hear that hypothetically if we destroy the Earth, we could go and live on Mars – that’s the same thing. It’s not there ‘I didn’t look at Zod as a villain. I just saw him as a guy whose job is to protect his people.”

I understand what he’s saying, but it’s still a great film in the franchise. In the end, it could be an easy way to rationalize the salary he got from starring in those DC movies. He had previously talked about his return to Zod on The Flash, which he felt hadn’t been all that satisfying. He said:

“Yeah. I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t entirely satisfying for me, as an actor. These multiverse movies are like someone playing with action figures. It’s like, ‘Here’s this person. Here’s that person. And I’m combative!’ It’s not quite the deep character study situation that I honestly thought Man of Steel was. Whether people think he’s crazy or not, I don’t even care. I really felt like Man of Steel was actually a pretty sophisticated story. Like The The Flash is too, but it’s not Zod’s story. They’re basically there to present a challenge.”

So he got trapped in a franchise he tried to avoid. Regardless of his thoughts on the film, The flash it was still amazing and the fans are going to love it. I just think it’s kind of funny that he got caught up in what he was trying to avoid. I suspect we won’t see him again in the DC universe.