The newest rumor on the Superman reboot, which apparently comes from the usually reliable The Hollywood Reporter, is that Warner Brothers has interest in casting Viggo Mortensen as General Zod. This is not the first time the rumor that Zod is the main villain has surfaced. It also jives with rumors that there´s search for an actress to play Ursa, Zod´s henchwoman. As a matter of fact, there´s been talk of Zod way back to after Superman Returns, when Bryan Singer claimed he intended to go Wrath Of Khan for the sequel that never happened, not to mention a Ma Kent line from the movie about never knowing what´s out there, referring to Supes being the last son of Krypton. If it´s gonna keep that major element, was it even worth it firing Singer in the first place?
One of the main things that bothered fans about the last Supes movie was exactly the fact that there were too much references to the old franchise, to the point where some called the movie a “requel”, a mix of remake and sequel. And one of the things that excite fans the most about the reboot is the possibility of finally seeing popular villains from the comics that never made it to the big screen, in spite of the fact that there have been five (six, if you wanna count the George Reeves one from the fifties) theatrical Supes movies already. This hardly seems like something the reboot´s “godfather” Chris Nolan and writer David S. Goyer would come up with. When they resurrected the bat=franchise with Batman Begins, they were wise enough to use Ra´s Al Ghul and Scarecrow, two popular villains from the comics that had never made it into a feature film. Director Zack Snyder has also showed to have a good pulse of what fans want in a comics adaptation. There are plenty of suitable choices. Just from the top of the gallery:
BRAINIAC:
PROS: Think of all the cool crazy futuristic hi-tech stuff he could come up with to use against Supes, a gold mine for designers and FX wizards. His cold, calculating machine logic is a perfect contrast to Supes´ kindness and compassion. The character has recently been reinvigorated by the Geoff Johns and Gary Frank miniseries Superman: Brainiac, which even updates the old concept of the Bottled City of Kandor. He´s arguably the second most important Superman villain ever.
CONS: The general audience may think of him as a cliché “AI gone rogue” kinda character, but hey, how many scientists gone rogue we have seen in superhero movies again?
DOOMSDAY
PROS: Has starred in Superman´s blockbuster storyline The Death Of Superman. Has great potential for action and suspense as this unstoppable, “force of nature” villain that mercilessly destroys everything in his path like a living hurricane. It could be an interesting arc to have the character go from mindless beast to experiencing human emotions, as has happened in the comics.
CONS: After the death of Supes being a big plot point in SR, much of the character´s main appeal is lost for a feature film.
DARKSEID
PROS: Darkseid is the Darth Vader of the DC universe. Bringing the hordes of Apokolips to Earth would be epic on a Star Wars/ Independence Day scale, not to mention even by himself Darkseid is a tremendously powerful villain and an evil mastermind.
CONS: May be so big and epic he´s too much for a movie that intends to rebuild the franchise from the ground up. May be more suited for a sequel.
As a matter of fact, as overused as Luthor is, even he could be a more interesting choice. There´s a lot of potential from the various takes on Luthor that has never been explored in movies: the businessman who “owns” Metropolis, the brilliant but nefarious weapons manufacturer, even president Luthor could be an unusual and interesting take for a superhero movie. Finally a dead on serious, brilliant and menacing Luthor, without any campy humor.
Part of the problem with bringing back Zod is, the character has already been brilliantly portrayed on film. Terence Stamp´s Zod has even ranked above Luthor as a comic book movie villain among fans, for he was the first villain to be portrayed seriously in a superhero movie, with all his icy majesty and menace.
I´m hoping this is all a red herring. After all, we heard more than once that Catwoman wasn´t going to be in The Dark Knight Rises and the female leads were going to be a Vicki Vale/Julie Madison-like girlfriend and Talia Al Ghul, then they announced the casting of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. If this is the case, I´ll compliment them again for their skills in keeping fans in the dark till the proper moment. If not, even with the casting of fan-favorite Henry Cavill for the part of the man of steel, and all the talented people involved, my faith in this reboot has been severely tainted.