Michael Shannon talked about his recent casting as General Zod in Zack Snyder's new Superman film, Man of Steel, at the RiverRun International Film Festival. The actor said:

"It's ridiculous!" says Michael Shannon of the casting, "It just came out of nowhere. I'm talking to my agent and she goes, 'How about Superman?' 'What?' The idea that I would ever be in Superman. 'Are you serious?'"

"So I go meet him [Zack Snyder] and he's seriously sitting there and he's telling me - he's like 'You can't read the script, so I'm just gonna tell you what happens.' And he spent like a half hour telling me every scene in this movie...and then it's a month later, it's like 'OK, you're General Zod.'

Michael Shannon also revealed Zack Snyder championed him for the part during the month-long process where he screen tested against Henry Cavill.