Luthor will be the
Big Bad of the sequel, yet form an
Enemy Mine with Superman in the third one.
Reminiscent of
Justice League.
Superman won't be *TOO* powerful in this reboot
Modern audiences would probably find him too hard to believe if he is as overpowered as in the comics. While he's going to keep his usual
Flying Brick and
Combo Platter Powers, his strength, speed and resistance will be much more finite, defined and overall less powerful in order for him to be more easily challenged by the various villains. That and for the sake of drama and tension.
- Good writers can pull off excellent stories with drama and tension even though he is nearly invincible.
- And since he is fighting Zod, a fellow kryptonian, they could make them as powerful as they prefer.
- From a writer's perspective it would still be preferable to limit his power level, as even though he may be up against other kryptonians in *this* film, it would pay to think ahead to potential sequels. After all, there's only so many times you can use a plot involving other kryptonians or kryptonite.
- Unlike the movies, Superman has plenty of enemies in the comics who can match him physically. Bizarro, Mongul, Darkseid, Doomsday, Metallo, Lex wearing his battlesuit, Brainiac (Depending on the Writer), Parasite, Solomon Grundy, etc.
This film and its eventual series is part of the
Nolanverse
Just getting that out of the way, considering that Nolan is involved with both franchises. It will pave the way for several other DC movies in the 'verse, and the inevitable
Justice League. Not unlike what
Marvel did
- Seeing as how a reboot for Batman is already in the works, it's much more likely that this is going to be the first movie in a DCCU rather than part of the original Nolanverse. I wouldn't be even remotely surprised if it's very similar to the Nolanverse, though.
- To go in further detail, though: say that, for example, Bale's Batman existed during Clark's childhood/teenagehood, and that a wary papa Kent, in light of the Bat’s vilification post-joker, told his adopted son that, maybe, superpowers may not have a place in this world; say that, a few years later, when Clark is doing his soul-searching, the Bat comes back to save Gotham, changing Clark’s point of view on the matter; say that, a few months or years later, the Man of Steel comes forth to save the Earth from Zod and co, redeeming the public’s opinion of superheroes in one fell swoop; and say that, some time later, Superman is contacted to form up the Justice League by a certain John Blake, who’s taken up the cowl after Wayne’s retirement from the front lines.
- Jossed. The Nolanverse was clearly stated to be closed within itself.
Brainiac and
Darkseid will be the main villains in the second and third films in the trilogy
Lex Luthor will appear, but as a secondary villain only.
- As long as he's not trying to pull another real estate scam, I'm in. I could definitely see either of them as the Big Bad of the Justice League movie.
The main theme of the film will be Clark having to choose between his Kryptonian heritage and his human upbringing.
- Pa Kent's voiceover on the teaser outright states "one day you are going to have to make a choice... decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be". Add that to the fact the villain is General Zod, a Kryptonian, and I wouldn't be too suprised if Zod gives Clark/Kal-El a We Can Rule Together speech, forcing Clark to choose wheather to stand with humanity or his own people. He'll choose humanity, obviously.
- I'm pretty sure that's actually Jor-El's voice in the teaser.
- One of the trailers has Jor-El narrating. The one quoted above is the other, narrated by Jonathan Kent.
- That quiet, realistic teaser? Just a smokescreen. Expect thirty-seven different colours of Kryptonite, Krypto, Jimmy Olsen turning into a giant turtle boy and a fight between Zod and Beppo the Super-Monkey. On the moon.
- I completely fail to see how.
- Then you are missing the point.
The roles of Order and Chaos will be reversed.
In
The Dark Knight Saga, it was very much clear, especially in the second and third films, that the main theme was the conflict between Order and Chaos, specially
Lawful Good vs.
Chaotic Evil. In the upcoming Superman Trilogy, the conflict will be, instead,
be of a super powerful being not letting anything, not even governments, get in the way of justice and what is right battling against
individuals who wish to oppress anyone in their way for whatever reason. In the first movie, it would probably be General Zod, either having been released from an interdimensional prison long after Krypton blew up, or having long conquered all of Krypton and ruling it to the point where
it may as well been better off blown up, spiritually speaking, coming to Earth in order to conquer it and/or use it as a replacement planet for the Kryptonians.
If the above WMG of future villains is correct, the trend of
Chaotic Good vs.
Lawful Evil will be prevalent in the entire trilogy and may in fact be the main overreaching theme as well.
- Much of the conflict in Superman isn't Chaos vs. Order, it's straight Good Vs. Evil. Superman is definitely Lawful Good, in the early comics when he found out that several of his crime-busts had been let go because of improper arrest procedures he became an officially licensed deputy. Superman always prefers to work inside the law, which is why he doesn't just throw Lex Luthor out a window or beat him to a pulp when he's not in a huge attack-mech or something; the only time he "doesn't let anything stand in his way" is when governmental or other "official" forces are defeating their own purpose either through needless complexity or corruption. If anything, Supes vs. Zod/Braniac/Darkseid would be LAWFUL Good vs. Lawful Evil.
Clark Kent must have found a job on a crab fishing boat. Actually, considering he is
Nigh Invulnerable, that would be right up his alley.
- That, or Aquaman is going to be a supporting character.
One of the trailers will end with Zod saying "
Kneel"
Because it would be blasphemy if they didn't.
- Sadly Jossed. Michael Shannon won't say the line
in the film.
- Fuck...
- Zod not saying that is like... Superman not wearing the S shield.
- Fuck - but then again, the Smallville version that was the Big Bad of Season 9 only uttered it once if memory serves. He mostly just used "Kneel!" - which in the Smallville Universe is the Kryptonian equivalent of a military salute. His most epic use of it was when Clark first revealed himself to the Kandorians, and Zod orders them to "KNEEL BEFORE KAL-EL!"
- It just says he won't say "Kneel before Zod". He could say a variant of it, or yell "Kneel".
- Or Faora could tell Superman to "Kneel before Zod."
- Or he could even say "Kneel before Dru-Zod!" It always bugged me that his full name is so rarely used when Clark is always referred to as Kal-El. It could also highlight that the rivalry is personal.
- Or he'll say "Kneel before me!" Same tyrannical tone, slightly less Narm Charm, a nod to the older films without ripping them off.
He'll be his usual
Driven by Envy self from post-Crisis, though, trying to get rid of Supes so he can be the hero of the U.S. It will also be mentioned that he was once a C.E.O. This would also introduce the conflict of
To Be Lawful or Good to Supes.
The 2nd trailer has Pa Kent being ambivalent as to whether Clark should've saved the kids on the bus, Ma Kent seems to be helping Clark with his
super hearing, and the army doesn't seem to trust him at the least. The film may start as a Deconstruction of Superman, showing how today's world would react to such a being, and then turn into a Reconstruction, and remind the audience why Superman is
awesome
- Having recently read the "Veritas" fanfic, I would love to see this. It seems obvious from the trailers that the world (at least the .mil) is not going to just accept off the bat that he's not a threat. And having fellow Kryptonian Zod around tearing up jack isn't going to help his rep either I'd bet.
- In an interview, Nolan said he liked the choice of Snyder because he'd already deconstructed superheroes, and now he has the chance to reconstruct them. We'll see how successful he is, but apparently this is the goal.
Zod will be American this time
- ...And?
- And we will all kneel before him!
The people of Smallville DON'T treat Clark as a freak when he saves the bus...
But rather, as a sort of Messiah/Angelic figure. Either one would be a bit unsettling to people like The Kents, after all...
- Strangely, this makes sense. Bruce Wayne could intentionally create a bad reputation to seem shallow yet harmless, and he even managed to keep his privacy with the same manipulation. An average farmer like Jonathan wouldn't know those tricks and would easily get tired of having strangers try to interview his family over and over again, even if it was to praise his miraculous son.
The sequel will be titled "Last Son of Krypton"
Zod and his
army of
kryptonians are far
Too Powerful to Live. They would be dealt with at the end of
Man of Steel, leaving Kal-El as the true
last son of Krypton.
No one said anything about
daughters, though.
- Adding to this, if it's a trilogy, the final film will be "Man of Tomorrow."
The film would be a partial ripoff of
Smallville season nine
Superman being held at gunpoint and arrested. Apparently
Darker and Edgier (in an attempt to make it more realistic,
to mixed results). Zod and his army of kryptonians (also using Faora, also used in Smallville, instead of Ursa from previous films).
Michael Shannon: He’s not a villain any more than any other General fighting to protect his people. He doesn’t like to just hurt people and steal diamonds; he’s focused on being successful at his job. [...] I think this [characterisation] is more ambiguous.
The events of the movie will make Lex Luthor an alien hater.
- Since when is there an adaptation of Lex Luthor who isn't an alien (read:Superman) hater?
- Actually, it's more likely that Luthor will be a someone-who-is-more-powerful-than-me hater. The alien hating is just a cover that Luthor uses, and sometimes a self-delusion.
- OR, Luthor will use the events of this movie as an Excuse for hating Superman.
Allison Mack would eventually appear as
Power Girl.
Because this page needs more crackpot theories. But seriously, she voiced Power Girl in
Superman Batman Public Enemies and even looked a fair bit like her (
except,
you know...). The bad thing is she is actually a year older than Henry Cavill now, but she looks young enough to pass as someone in her early twenties.
- And her appearance will set up an Earth 2 movie.
- Or she would appear as Chloe Sullivan. Given that the far lesser-known original character Whitney Fordman has been confirmed to appear, it is not a stretch at all.*
Smallville has 6 main original character at most. Tess Mercer is a Mercy Graves expy, "Jimmy" is a clumsy retcon and is basically the Jimmy from the comics, Davis is an extension of Doomsday, both Whitney and Jason only appeared in 1 season (with a couple of minor appearances outside the season) and Chloe is the only character to appear in all 10 seasons other than Clark himself, is a main character for the first 9 and billed as one whenever she appears in season 10.
- Zack Snyder is also a big Smallville fan. Keep your fingers crossed.
- In the third TV spot trailer it is apparently revealed that Jonathan says the line "You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark." right in front of the sign of "Sullivan's truck and tractor repair", which makes it a bit more likely that the Sullivans will have some sort of role (in Smallville Chloe's father works in a fertilizer plant, though...)
Kryptonite will never be used in this series
Because it's one of many Superman clichés that Snyder and Nolan will try to distance their series from, it's way too easy to turn it into a convenient all-purpose plot device, and nixing it would force the writers to include genuinely threatening antagonists (something that most of the
Superman films have been sorely lacking).
- It is too important a part of the Superman mythos for it to not appear at all, although it should be limited. It is confirmed that it won't appear in the first film.
In this version, Jor-El and Lara sent their son to Earth because of a war on Krypton
Instead of Krypton being
destroyed from the inside via natural processes, it was consumed by a planet-wide war that wiped out its entire population—with Zod and his followers only surviving because they were high-ranking military leaders with more protection than the average Kryptonian. My reasoning for this:
- In one of the scenes in the trailer, Jor-El appears to be watching some airships duke it out in the skies of Krypton.
- Also, some of Zod's dialogue in the trailer makes it seem like he's actively hunting Kal-El, like he is part of the reason there was a war in the first place.
- It would be a convenient way to build up Zod as a serious threat, if we're told that he was actively involved in a war that killed the Kryptonian race.
- It would make the military's distrust of Superman a lot more believable, if he came from a politically unstable planet whose people already wiped themselves out with deadly weapons.
- The movie's apparent theme of hope would resonate a lot stronger if Superman was a refugee from a war-torn world instead of just the survivor of a natural disaster.
- See above WMG. Nixing Krypton's destruction would give the filmmakers a convenient excuse not to include kryptonite in the movie (can't have it scattered across the universe if Krypton's core didn't explode, right?), forcing them to include genuinely threatening villains.
The military will turn to Luthor for help defeating Zod
At the beginning of the movie, Luthor is already a political prisoner (imprisoned for some unknown act of international terrorism) who's kept in solitary confinement 24/7 by the military, who know that he's far too dangerous to be allowed human contact. They'll
turn to him as a last resort when it looks like the Kryptonians are unbeatable, brokering a deal that will eventually help him gain his freedom. The catch? We won't actually find out that the unseen prisoner was named "Luthor" until the end of the movie, setting up a
Sequel Hook à la ending of
Batman Begins.
- About 2 minutes and 18 seconds into trailer 3, you can see what I think is Lex in his battlesuit, so maybe.
- I think it is just one of Zod's soldiers.
- Going off of this, though, maybe the movie's version of Luthor will build his battlesuit from Kryptonian technology.
Krypton will be destroyed... the war in Trailer #3 is what keeps Kryptonians from noticing.
Jor-El in this version will be a voice of reason trying to get warring factions of Kryptonians (one side led by General Zod) to stop fighting and deal with the greater threat of their planet's impending destruction. This is also why Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van stay behind on Krypton - they still have hopes of getting their people to save the world, but they want to ensure their son's safety.
- This is a perfect mix of the two versions.
At the end of the film/trilogy...
- A hooded young man picks up a Daily Planet paper with the title "I spent the night with Superman" and reads aloud: "Fastest man alive, eh? We'll see about that."
- Same thing, except with a woman saying "Now that is not something you see every day in Man's World".
- A shadowed figure with glowing red eyes reads the paper in silence, and the camera focuses on the words "last son of a extinct race" "visitor from another planet".
- Okay I just have to gush about how awesome an introduction this would be. No one but the geeks would get it, but it's perfect.
- "Disturbance detected in space sector 2814. Requesting backup."
- Last, but not least, a cloaked man studying the kryptonian physical structure on a giant computer screen and debating on the possibility of synthesizing a substance that would inhibit their solar power absorption.
- A masked figure looks over a TV and plays a game of chess in mentioning that he will challenge him and he will fail.
- Ooh, my turn! A young man sees the paper and mutters, "Impressive...for a surface-dweller."
- Dammit, I always think Aquaman is awesome and underrated but I can't think of a good one-liner. How on Earth did "surface-dweller" escape me?
- Maybe because the phrase is more commonly associated with Sub-Mariner?
- I'm sure he used the phrase in the DCAU and I don't read/watch Marvel.
- Hey, I can play too? A hooded figure asks a blonde woman to hack the Pentagon's computer and pull up everything she can find about events that could potentially be related to the recent Kryptonian invasion, except 20 to 30 years before. The blonde makes a quick comment about Superman's "Nice S", the hooded figure rolls his eyes, and the blonde gets to work.
- Black Canary is a Walking Techbane last time I checked. Second person I thought of is Oracle but she is a redhead (mixed her up with the blonde Stephanie).
- There's a link to the Arrow TV series (and not Green Arrow in general) for a reason ;)
- Felicity? Never heard of her before I checked the character sheet over there. Give me BC + Oracle any day. And that GA kills tons of people. No thanks.
- I have to get in on this: Cut to space, moving faster and faster through several star Systems... Until we see a very familiar, burning planet, we move down to the surface, and we see a towering man with red eyes and grey skin smiling as he speaks: "I am coming, Kryptonian."
The villain in the next movie will be hinted in a Stinger along the lines of this...
- Sometime in the middle of the film there will be a fleeting moment with a small asteroid hitting somewhere in the American wilderness. In The Stinger; there will be a news crew covering the destruction of a small town or a highway. An injured survivor is interviewed but insane from terror and simply says "Doomsday is here".
If or when Luthor does appear...
After these movies, when he's a full villain, Lex will form the
Legion of Doom and be the main antagonist of Justice League 2
Because it would be awesome.
From what we can glean from Jor-El's monologue in the trailer, the new series will place a good deal of emphasis on Superman's role as
a model for social and scientific progress on Earth. Introducing a team of superheroes from a utopian future who follow his example would be the perfect way to tangibly show the positive influence that his heroic deeds will have on the course of human history—particularly if they make the movie's Legionnaires normal humans who got their powers through scientific means.
Not to mention that, at this point,
Brainiac is one of the best candidates for the role of
Big Bad in the sequel (since he's probably the biggest villain in the
Superman mythos who's never been properly represented on film), so introducing a heroic Brainiac 5 in a later movie would be a good way to bring the series full circle and show its underlying theme of hope and optimism (i.e. even the worst villains are capable of redemption) at work.
- Brainiac is probably the most often used Superman foe in adaptations other than Lex Luthor, some of them are not on the big screen but still.
- That's the point: he's the most popular Superman villain who still hasn't gotten a big-screen treatment (since big-screen adaptations nearly always use Luthor as the default Big Bad). The sequel could be his first.
- If that's the case, hoping that it would be the rogue kryptonian supercomputer version, since the old one is covered by another upcoming film.
- Hmmm, if Brainiac is set to be the villain of the Sequel, and Darkseid the most likely villain for the big JL Movie, perhaps Doomsday will show up in the third movie then? Superman fights it and dies, as is history, but the Legion decides to go back and change this and save Superman, helping him prepare for the battle ahead of time and helping him fight Doomsday off. Superman lives this time, which could lead to major changes to the timeline.
Because it would be the perfect way to one-up audience expectations of a simple superhero brawl, and it would be a great way to follow up on
The Dark Knight introducing
The Joker and Two-Face in the same movie. Spin the story any way you want: Maybe one of Luthor's experiments with contacting alien life will lead to Brainiac discovering Earth and invading from another dimension. Maybe Brainiac will covertly take over Luthor's mind and attempt to use him as a channel for conquering Earth, with Brainiac showing up in his true form in a
Twist Ending. Maybe Luthor will turn humanity against Superman, leaving him to redeem his reputation by saving Metropolis from Brainiac's attack. Any way you slice it, you could have an awesome story.
New theories base on music track titles (possible spoilers?)
A lot of the titles come from the trailer's dialogue, but a few caught my attention.
- "Terraforming" - Zod's plan to rebuild Krypton on Earth? (Just like Zod - the episode - and maybe Pandora from Smallville)
- Reference to the prequel comic—thousands of ships with Kryptonian-generating technology were dispatched to terraform planets for Kryptonian expansion.
- "Tornado" - Please don't be a Tempest rip-off.
- "Launch" and "Ignition" - Please don't be a Hidden rip-off.
- "This Is Clark Kent" - Secret Identity Identity.
- "Flight" - Are they going to make this a big deal? It'd be better to have a small but memorable and early moment of first flight like in Superman: The Animated Series than spending ten years not flying.
- This one's not likely. Hans Zimmer tracks are frequently out of order with where they appear in the movie, and the trailers and TV spots have shown many sequences with him flying. What is depressing, though, is how dull the titles of the tracks are compared to some of his other projects...
Villains other than Zod, Lex, Brainiac, Doomsday and Darkseid?
- Bizarro
- Mr. Mxyzptlk
- Parasite
- Mongul
- Imperiex
- Metallo
- Intergang
- Gang wars are more of Batman's territory. They're kind of lame too.
- Ultraman
- Toyman
- Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman
Brainiac will cameo in the first film and have a hand in Krypton's destruction
Setting him up to be a major villain in a future film a la Zod in the old series.
If and when Darkseid appears (probably in Justice League)
He WON'T be an
Anti-Climax Boss. For SHAME,
Smallville!
Krypton didn't die from natural solar causes, it was destroyed by
The Reapers.
That was a Harvester we saw at the beginning of the
third trailer.
- After all, Warner Brothers is also the studio doing the Mass Effect movie.
- Does this mean that General Zod was Indoctrinated?
- As stated on the main page, in this version Krypton is destroyed by its unstable core.
At the end of the credits will say "Superman will return in Justice League"
How awesome would that be?
The main villain of the trilogy would follow the pattern of the Dark Knight Saga
Scarecrow — Joker and Two-Face — Bane ; Zod — Lex Luthor and Brainiac — Doomsday/Darkseid
Lois Lane will become Clark's
Secret Keeper when he joins the Daily Planet.
Since she's already searching for him before he even becomes Superman.
- I think she only knows him as the mysterious guardian angel and she will spend at least one film not knowing his secret.
The boy with the red cape is Clark.
Sort of a meta-
Mythology Gag since Superman has inspired generations of kids to run around with capes.
The excuse being that Clark only joins the Daily Planet at the end of the movie, so Jimmy can be the younger co-worker in the sequel.
- An interview somewhere said she is Jimmy's sister. My guess is she will turn out to be a Chloe Sullivan Expy.
In one of the trailers Clark is saving a child from a tornado. In another, he's
screaming in distress in what looks like the same scene.
- Maybe Zod killed him so Clark would leave Earth.
Highly improbable conversation
Lex Luthor will be initially introduced as more of an antagonistic supporting character in the sequel, as opposed to villain.
The DCAU had perhaps the best Luthor yet portrayed, largely because they let him stew off to the side a slowly build his rivalry with Superman. The films will do the same, allowing the audience time to understand Lex's motivations and how in the hell he can take on Superman without just resorting to kryptonite. His company is already in the film, so reference will be made to him in a very ambiguous manner.
General Zod will mention something about human metagenes having the potential to be unlocked.
Suggesting that all humanoid sentient species have the potential for powers and that the Kryptonians simply artificially enhanced theirs would both serve as a plausible explanation for Superman's powers and suggest that other heroes may be on the way.
- Er, kryptonian powers are naturally gained from their evolution.
The skulls in the fourth trailer...
- Human skulls? We know Zod and his army will do some destruction by the given trailers. But could be committing, Genocide?
- Nightmare Sequence?
- Yeah, that was what I was thinking. It is just too dark to be real in a Superman film. Probably a nightmare of what would happen if he doesn't give himself up.
The stinger for the movie will feature Lex Luthor discovering Kryptonite.
They don't intend to use it in this film, but it
is an essential part of Superman lore, plus it sets up Lex Luthor as the next villain. Done right, it could be really menacing and eliminate the cheese factor that Kryptonite had by the end of the original run of films.
- As long as it's not his ONLY weapon this time.
Everything from Krypton becomes more powerful under a yellow sun in this version
- The reason why Zod and his troops continue to wear armor even though, logically, they wouldn't need to? It's because even their armor's durability is enhanced in this version, and if they are fighting another Kryptonian that has been under Earths yellow sun for years, they may feel the need to be cautious.
- That's from the Silver Age that they are presumably trying to distance from. My guess is that their powers haven't fully developed as they have only just arrived, making the film a race against the clock as the kryptonians get more and more powerful.
- Or they're wearing the same kind of armor that Superboy Prime wore in Infinite Crisis: light-absorbing armor that enhances their powers by channeling extra solar energy into their cells.
