Before Man of Steel came out, some fans assumed that the iconic villain General Zod, played by Michael Shannon, would go on to be a franchise mainstay, terrorizing Superman (Henry Cavill) for years to come in subsequent sequels. As it turns out, he was killed by Superman himself, breaking his legendary "no-kill" maxim by snapping the villain's neck. What fans didn't know at the time is this infamous battle, which completely destroyed Metropolis, set the stage for next year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Director Zack Snyder revealed at Comic Con this year that both Metropolis and Gotham are "twin cities," separated by a bay, and the destructive battle between Superman and Zod actually leveled Bruce Wayne's (Ben Affleck) Wayne Tower, leading to the highly-anticipated battle next year. While we wait for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to it theaters, Man of Steel screenwriter David S. Goyer appeared on the Nerdist Podcast, where he revealed why the decision was made to kill General Zod. Here's what he had to say below.

"The way I work, the way Chris [Nolan] works, is you do what's right for the story. That exists entirely separately from what fans should or shouldn't think of that character. You have to do what's right for the story. In that instance, this was a Superman who had only been Superman for like, a week. He wasn't Superman as we think of him in the DC Comics...or even in a world that conceived of Superman existing. He'd only flown for the first time a few days before that. He'd never fought anyone that had super powers before. And so he's going up against a guy who's not only super-powered, but has been training since birth to use those super powers, who exists as a superhuman killing machine, who has stated, 'I will never stop until I destroy all of humanity.' If you take Superman out of it, what's the right way to tell that story? I think the right way to tell that story is if you take this powered alien who says, 'You can have your race back, but you have to kill your adopted race,' the moral, horrible situation to be in is to actually be forced to kill, not wanting to, the only other person from your race. Take Superman aside, I think that's the right way to tell that story."

Just one month after Man of Steel hit theaters, it was announced at Comic Con 2013 that Batman was coming into this world. Over the next two years, we have slowly gotten new details about the expansive superhero world Warner Bros. and DC are creating, including how Zod's corpse fits into the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice story. We saw the villain's lifeless body in the second Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer, but how exactly it is used has yet to be confirmed. There have been rumors that Lex Luthor uses his corpse to create the villainous Doomsday, but that may prove to be untrue.

David S. Goyer also wrote the initial script for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was later rewritten by Chris Terrio. Do you think it was the right call to kill General Zod in 2013's Man of Steel? Or are you intrigued about how his corpse will be used in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? You can visit Nerdist to listen to the entire podcast with David S. Goyer, and stay tuned for more on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, arriving in theaters next March.