[3] American actor Michael Shannon was cast as Zod for Man of Steel (2013), a reboot of the Superman film franchise that would eventually become the first entry into the DC Extended Universe.

[8] Much like Superman actor Henry Cavill and Faora actress Antje Traue, Shannon trained extensively for his role, utilizing workouts that heavily featured goblet squats and barbell complexes under trainer Mark Twight.

[9] General Zod's bodysuit was designed by Michael Wilkinson with an alien chain mail motif and his family crest in the front, similar to Superman, Faora, Jor-El, and other Kryptonian characters in the film.

[13] Shannon was later approached by Andy Muschietti to reprise his role as Zod in The Flash (2023), the last installment in the DCEU before its soft-reboot in anticipation of the DC Universe managed by James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Having so much fun filming The Flash, Shannon kept one of Muschietti's drawings at home with his permission and has expressed interest in working with him again if the opportunity arises.

[16] Zod is portrayed in Man of Steel as a highly skilled, determined, and charismatic warrior, fiercely loyal to his race and its ideals and unafraid to act on instinct.

Despite caring for other Kryptonians at times, he views those of other races, such as humans, to be inferior, disregarding their extinction when he attempts to terraform Earth into Krypton-like conditions.

He also does not grasp the concept of free will, and when his plans are thwarted, is driven mad by the loss of his people and failing at what he perceives to be his sole purpose in life, vowing to personally wipe out humanity in revenge until Superman is forced to kill him.

[14] As he later elaborated, Zod's appearance in the film serves more like a plot device, or an obstacle like Shannon referred to, than a pivotal in-depth role.

When Krypton is near destruction due to excessive mining of the planetary core, Zod considers the council too weak to keep their race alive, so he forms the Sword of Rao and recruits his followers to launch an uprising.

When Zod arrives at Jor-El's home, he realizes that the latter had stolen the genetic codex and is about to ship it off with his son, Kal-El, the first naturally born Kryptonian child in centuries.

After Krypton inevitably explodes, the Phantom Zone portal opens, freeing Zod and his followers, who mourn the destruction of their home world.

Around 2013, Zod's forces intercept a signal from Earth after an adult Kal-El, now known as Clark Kent, activates a Kryptonian scout ship found in the Arctic.

Jor-El's hologram speaks with Zod and attempts to convince him to abort the mission, but the latter refuses, deleting the AI and taking the ship to Metropolis.

Eighteen months later, Metropolis has rebuilt itself after suffering catastrophic damage from the battle, with a park and monument built at the spot where the Black Zero landed.

Though the monster, which Luthor calls his "doomsday", is impervious to nuclear weapons and regenerates itself upon being harmed, Superman manages to kill it with a Kryptonite spear along with Batman and Wonder Woman's help, though it costs him his own life.

Despite the polarized reception to Man of Steel overall, Michael Shannon's interpretation of General Zod in the film received critical acclaim.

[19] Mark Birrell from Screen Rant ranked Zod as the second greatest DCEU villain in 2019, second only to Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad.

[15] The plot description and characterization were adapted from Dru-Zod and Man of Steel at the DC Extended Universe Wiki, which are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license.