During an interview with the Nerdist Podcast (via IndieWire), screenwriter David S. Goyer has been speaking about the controversial climax to the showdown between Superman and General Zod in 2013’s Man of Steel, which saw Kal-El putting an end to Zod’s rampage by snapping his neck. The decision to have Superman kill his foe has been a sticking point for many fans, but Goyer feels that it was “right for the story.”
“The way I work, the way [Christopher Nolan] works, is you do what’s right for the story,” states Goyer. “That exists entirely separately from what fans should or shouldn’t think of that character. You have to do what’s right for the story. In that instance, this was a Superman who had only been Superman for like, a week. He wasn’t Superman as we think of him in the DC Comics…or even in a world that conceived of Superman existing. He’d only flown for the first time a few days before that. He’d never fought anyone that had super powers before. And so he’s going up against a guy who’s not only super-powered, but has been training since birth to use those super powers, who exists as a superhuman killing machine, who has stated, ‘I will never stop until I destroy all of humanity.’”
“If you take Superman out of it, what’s the right way to tell that story?” he continues. “I think the right way to tell that story is if you take this powered alien who says, ‘You can have your race back, but you have to kill your adopted race,’ the moral, horrible situation to be in is to actually be forced to kill, not wanting to, the only other person from your race. Take Superman aside, I think that’s the right way to tell that story.”
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our DC Expanded Universe coverage here
Do you agree? Was it the right way to tell the story? Let us know in the comments below…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=Yo85WjqklYY
Originally published October 29, 2015. Updated November 8, 2019.
