Even all these years later, the final battle in Man of Steel is still generating a fair bit of controversy, but based on comments from Henry Cavill, neither he nor Superman feel too bad about how that fight with General Zod played out. "I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a survivor’s guilt," the actor explains. "I mean, that’s a different kind of thing because he’s above the threat. I think the most difficult thing for him at this stage of the story is that he has just come to terms with the fact that he is really, really quite powerful and he hasn’t found any major vulnerabilities yet, and despite this, despite the enormous power that he has, he still cannot do everything, and he really struggles with that. It’s not just a quick, “Okay, I get it. I can’t save everyone.” That takes a long time to work out."
Asked whether the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are a direct response to Man of Steel's final act, Cavill went on to indicate that Zack Snyder always intended to touch on that battle again. "I think that may have been part of the master plan all along. When it comes to the major story stuff I can’t really speak on that, because that was above my paygrade. What I can speak of is the idea of Superman, especially when the finger is pointed at collateral damage in the first movie. I mean, we’re talking about a greenhorn." It remains to be seen whether this movie will do enough to get fans to move on from the debate surrounding that mass destruction caused by the hero, but addressing it head on is probably wise.
Finally, the British actor was quizzed on the kind of stories he hopes to tell with Superman moving forward, and despite being a fan of Mark Millar's Red Son, it sounds like he's more focused on remaining within DC's shared universe before tackling any alternate reality stories. "I think the offbeat stories are great, and I read Red Son in particular before I did Man of Steel, to get an idea of the baseline of the character because despite the fact that it’s offbeat and he’s grown up in a completely different environment, the character is still, at it’s very core, the same thing, and I love that. I think what’s important now is to tell a story which is dedicated to sharing the same character in the comic books in the cinematic universe, and then after that’s been established, then we can start exploring some more of the offbeat stuff."