Superman Is Fake If He Can't Kill Zod Says Zack Snyder

Similar to his thoughts on Batman, for the birthday of Superman, Zack Snyder reflects on his Man of Steel movie and says Superman is fake if he can’t be put into situations such as the scene when Clark kills Zod.

Regarding Batman, Snyder said Batman is also irrelevant if he can’t kill, which saw comic book industry veterans refute the notion to say the least.

I can recall that when Man of Steel was released, it was controversial due to all the violence and particularly the Zod death scene. I can remember watching it for a second time in theaters that when Superman killed Zod, a young boy in the audience said to his father something like “I thought Superman doesn’t kill,” and I knew at that moment things weren’t looking good.

If you also recall, Man of Steel opened pretty big which saw talk of a Man of Steel 2 right away; however, the box office fizzled and they brought in Ben Affleck to do Batman vs. Superman. The original plan was to have a Man of Steel 2 and then a solo Batman movie titled The Batman featuring a Batman in his second year of being a hero. Sound familiar? Tyler Hoechlin was there choice who went on to become The CW’s Superman.

What does Zack Snyder say about Superman killing Zod?

Zack Snyder spoke with GQ on YouTube and broke down his most iconic films which includes Man of Steel.

Here’s the transcript of the Zod discussion, and Zack also talked Man of Steel 2:

Zod’s not wrong from his point of view, but also, there’s no really room for humans in this scenario that Zod’s presenting and he’s not gonna stop. He wasn’t gonna negotiate an outcome, so it was either Zod or us. And that was pretty much the game.

There was no like middle ground. Zod said, “He would fight until either you kill me or I kill you.”

That’s the game. There’s no like, and they’re like, “But why would you put Superman in that position?”

I’m like, “Well, if Superman can’t handle that position, then he’s fake, then he’s not. You gotta like, he’s got to address the scenarios that come to him. He can’t pick and choose as you can’t pick and choose.”

When something is outside of your morality, your normal morality that you can deal with, it’s like the Kobayashi Maru, right, from “Star Trek.”

You know, it’s like the idea that like, you’re presented a scenario, a no-win scenario. And in the no-win scenario, how do you respond?

And I think that if you can respond, if the character can respond in a way that solidifies his humanity, then he’s stronger.