Michael Shannon Explains Why He Turned Down STAR WARS But Said Yes To MAN OF STEEL and THE FLASH
Michael Shannon is a wonderfully talented actor that has given some pretty incredible performances over the course of his career. He never seemed like the kind of actor that would join a big-budget tent pole franchise and over the course of his career he turned down roles in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises. However, he did sign up for two DC films including Man of Steel and The Flash. Why did he turn down other franchises but join the DC party?
During a recent interview with Empire Magazine, Shannon talked about why he mostly stays away from the big franchise films, saying:
"I'm always a bit wary about those giant movies because they take a lot of time and I don't find them very stimulating to work on. I don't ever want to get stuck in a franchise. If I'm making something, I want there to be some kind of purpose to it. I don't want to make mindless entertainment. The world doesn't need more mindless entertainment. We're inundated with it."
So, the actor wants to make sure that he’s involved with a film that tells an interesting story, and apparently, that’s exactly what he saw in Zack Snyder’s 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 looking at a civilization that destroyed their own planet and think the solution is to go off and destroy another. When you hear that hypothetically if we destroy the Earth, we might go live on Mars — it's the same thing. I didn't look at Zod as a villain. I just saw him as a guy whose job is to protect his people."
I get what he’s saying, but it’s still a big franchise film. In the end, it might be an easy way to rationalize the paycheck that he got from starring in those DC films. He previously talked about his return to Zod in The Flash, which he said was not as satisfying. He said:
"Yeah. I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't quite satisfying for me, as an actor. These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures. It's like, 'Here's this person. Here's that person. And they're fighting!' It's not quite the in-depth character study situation that I honestly felt Man of Steel was. Whether people think that's crazy or not, I don't even care. I really felt like Man of Steel was actually a pretty sophisticated story. I feel like The Flash is too, but it's not Zod's story. I'm basically there to present a challenge."
So he kind of got caught in a franchise that he has been trying to avoid. Regardless of his thoughts on the movie, The Flash was still great and fans are going to love it. I just think it’s kind of funny that he got caught in what he was trying to avoid. I suspect we won’t see him again in the DC universe.