WMG / Man of Steel

==Please note that we now have a WMG page for the sequel. Please direct all WMGs about it there.==

The reason this reboot is dark and gritty is because it takes place on a slight variation of Earth Prime.

Let's just pretend that the lack of DC Comics is because they never got off the ground in this reality. Now everybody Marvel Products.

Zod is the villain only because he cannot rise above the role he was born into. It's not his fault.

• Kind-of. The film runs with the notion of Kryptonians being put into various castes before they're even born. Zod is a warrior whose sole mission is to protect Krypton and it's legacy by any means possible. But because he's a soldier, he's basically trained to use nothing but violence to achieve that end. And it's said violence and his willingness to destroy an entire planet and it's population that makes him the villain; If there were alternatives, he'd likely pursue them. He basically lampshades this after Superman brings down the World-Builder and his companions are sent into the Phantom Zone again.
  • The film implies that he's targeting Earth out of spite towards the El family - he encountered dozens of habitable planets, and even more worlds that could be terraformed, and he doesn't even need to kill Clark in order to get the Codex, yet he's targeting Earth and he wants Superman dead when there are clearly other alternatives. That's why Superman calls him a monster - he's playing up the fact that he can't fight the fate he was designed for, when he's acting in the most cruel and callous way possible in spite of the hundreds of alternatives available to him.
    • This is borne out by how Zod deals with Earth. He could have just appeared in the sky and said "we are your people Kal-El. We need your help. Come to us, please." instead of threatening Earth. It seems as if just asking nicely first never even occurred to Zod. By the mid-point of the film, Zod has all of the ingredients necessary to recreate Krypton. He has Kal-El's DNA (from a blood sample they took on the ship, if not they could simply ask him to give them some in exchange for Earth being left alone), the Genesis Chamber and a World Engine. At this point Zod could have just gone somewhere else to start New Krypton. Why Earth and why kill Kal-El? Because it's personal.
  • If Jor-El and Lara could think outside the boundaries of what was programmed into them, then I don't see why Zod could not. It may be really difficult, but it's clearly not impossible.
    • Jor-El seems to have been in something of a scientific caste, meaning he could be programmed to think about things that are not known and hence outside his programming. That'd mean that while it might not really be impossible, it might have been slightly less difficult for Jor-El than for Zod.

The villain of the next movie will be Star Sapphire.

... any particular reason? Star Sapphire (or the Star Sapphires, depending on the era) is very strongly connected to the Green Lantern mythos, rather than Superman, unless there's something I've missed. Wouldn't it make more sense to use a villain or villains more closely associated with the character (like Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Metallo, or even Darkseid)?

• "Carrie Ferris" appeared in Man of Steel. She was the brunette military officer who followed the general around and announced her infatuation with Superman in the final scene of the film. It was practically a stinger.
  • This trooper still hopes Green Lantern (2011) is canon to Man of Steel (it had its faults, but it wasn't THAT bad)
    • Mythology Gag more than anything else (and at best). Calling it a stinger is really pushing it. Zod is a villain tied to Clark's kryptonian side. Lex is one tied to his human side, as well as having a decent entry point (rebuilding Metropolis). Star Sapphire may be an option, but she wouldn't be a good one, and it would kinda screw over Hal Jordan (remember, the Justice League film is still happening). That said, an option for the Justice League movie may be to use Kyle Rayner instead, so it could be done, but it would be screwing over Hal more and in general just doesn't seem likely.
• Jossed.

Luthor will be the Big Bad of the sequel, yet form an Enemy Mine with Superman in the third one.

Reminiscent of Justice League.

Luthor will be both the Big Bad of the sequel, and then the Justice League movie.

The perfect way to show how Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens.

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.
• Jossed: Superman is plenty powerful in this movie. The other Kryptonians are equally as powerful and capable of taking damage, but have the edge because of the armour they're wearing (the sun-blocking nature of which presumably ties into the idea that Krypton is increasingly isolationist even though a yellow sun would actually benefit them). Zod is pretty much on equal terms with Kal at the film's end, and they're both plenty powerful, if not ridiculously so; There's nothing like, say, the 'lifting an entire body of land laced with kryptonite a la Superman Returns.
  • Jossed? I would actually say this is Confirmed. Holding up the oil platform seemed to be about the limit of his strength, which compared to many comic and movie portrayals, is VERY toned down. I'd say he's about as powerful as in the DCAU.
  • Not necessarily. The oil platform was collapsing into pieces, making it difficult to hold on to. And the only reason why Clark was trying to push it back from the base instead of the top, was that he didn't know how to fly at the time.
  • It's also worth noting that Jor-El's "keep testing your limits" line implies Clark still hasn't reached his full power levels yet.
    • Evidenced by the fact at this point; he couldn't even fly yet.
  • His superspeed seems to be FAR below the level is was in the series Smallville. In it, he once left the football field in the middle of a play, went inside the school building to smackdown a guy about to kill his friend, and went back on the field to finish the play, so fast that nobody realized anything had happened! His speed on Smallville was not only his main means of travel but also how he kept his powers secret for most of the show's run. But a real-life reason for this disparity could be the director's decision to not use any bullet-time effects in Man of Steel. Bullet-time was heavily used on Smallville - even when it wasn't needed - like when a de-powered Clark and Zod brawl in the Season 9 finale.

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.

• He seems to be about as powerful as in his Post-Crisis incarnations. Which is to say a fraction of his Silver Age strength. It seems that, in this version, Superman is more powerful than Thor, but much less powerful than the Christopher Reeves-era Superman.

• 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'ss 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'ss 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'ss taken up the cowl after Wayne'ss retirement from the front lines.

• Jossed. The Nolanverse was clearly stated to be closed within itself.
  • It's probably for the best. Nolan's Batman is way too realistic for a Justice League.
    • Those three films are too realistic for a Justice League. It doesn't mean it can't contribute to a more "unrealistic" film. The Dark Knight Rises wasn't exactly without its fantastical moments.
  • Ahem. Maybe not jossed - given that DC needs to compete with Marvel and put out a JL movie, they wouldn't have time to put out a new Batman reboot. And it seems that DC has taken the quick way out - the Wayne Enterprises Logo from the Nolanverse can be glimpsed on a satellite in the final fight of the movie. Seems that they've shoehorned the Nolan movies in regardless.
    • They could always introduce a rebooted Batman in a "World's Finest" movie.
    • There is a bigger problem than realism or Word of God. It's unlikely, to say the least, that they would make a JL movie and not have Batman there to be Bruce Wayne, thus risking to alienate Batman fans. Placing the Justice League movie between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises is theoretically possible but it would inevitably lead to questions like 'Why no other hero did anything when Bane took over Gotham?' Much safer to just confirm that Nolanverse is its own verse.
    • Superman Stays Out of Gotham.
    • WB has the final word over DC, in the end, and I doubt they're too concerned with proper continuity. And it's easy enough to simply say that The Dark Knight Saga takes place before Man of Steel. It could also be argued that Green Lantern takes place after TDK, but before TDKR - Hal isn't superfast, and they'd probably surrounded Gotham with radar or something - so obviously he'd have trouble getting into the city. And regardless, even if he'd gotten in and started kicking ass, Talia could have just detonated the bomb at the first sign of trouble
    • DC recently announced a World's Finest movie being made. Batman's actor is stated to be so far unknown. If it were Nolanverse, what would be the point of not telling us if it were either Christian Bale or Joseph Gordon-Levitt?
    • Christian Bale already confirmed that TDKR is his last Batman movie. So, either Joseph Gordon-Levitt will take up the mantle or they'll bring in a new actor to play Batman
    • Warners says a lot of things, and they can certainly hire a new actor to play Batman but still at-least imply that the Dark Knight trilogy is his backstory.
    • Looks like this is officially Jossed that Ben Affleck will be the new Batman.

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.
• Confirmed. It even turns out that Zod's ultimate plan is to exterminate the human race and make Earth a new Kryptonian homeworld. He openly calls Clark a traitor for choosing to stand with the humans instead of letting him go through with "saving" Krypton.

The film will be full of Silver Age wackiness

• 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.
  • Unfortunately, that's Jossed.

The roles of Order and Chaos will be reversed.

In The Dark Knight Trilogy, 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.

Judging from the trailer, Man of Steel will be a crossover with Deadliest Catch.

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.
  • That would be cooler than you think.

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.
  • Well, maybe not THEM... (Although the argument could be made they they ripped off Zod first)

• Jossed. Zod never says the word "kneel" to anyone.

This film series will continue the Fandom Rivalry with the Marvel Cinematic Universe after The Dark Knight Trilogy

• That's a WMG? Sounds more like a foregone conclusion.

Lex Luthor will be the President of the U.S.A. (assuming he appears, which he will eventually)

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 only reference to Luthor, as of now, is a "Lexcorp" sticker on a truck that gets blown up in the final battle with Zod. That means that Luthor is still a corporate CEO of some kind.
• Jossed, as of Batman v. Superman. (There's still a tiny possibility that a future film could do this, though.)

The film will be a Decon-Recon Switch

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.
• Largely confirmed. Superman does end up having to cross quite a few moral lines, including outright murdering Zod with his bare hands, to save Earth. But the movie ends on an optimistic note, with Lois as Clark's willing Secret-Keeper, and with General Swanwick apparently willing to persuade the government to trust Clark.
  • Picky detail here: Killing in defense of others is not murder in most, if any, American jurisdictions.

Zod will be American this time

• ...And?
  • And we will all kneel before him!
  • Jossed: He's still Kryptonian.
  • I'm sure you meant Zod will be played by an American actor rather than a British one.

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.
• Kinda kills the whole point the trailers were trying to make.
• Semi-confirmed. Pete Ross (who had previously antagonized Clark) grows to respect Clark after Clark saves him, and Pete's mother does try to persuade the Kents that Clark's powers are divine in origin—though some of the townspeople apparently still have difficulties trusting him afterwards.

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."
• Interestingly, the proposed sequel to Superman Returns was titled "Superman: The Man of Steel", and there was a "Superman: The Last Son of Krypton" TV Movie that serves as the beginning story arc of ''Superman: The Animated Series".
• Last one not dead or in the Phantom Zone, anyway.

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.
• Confirmed.

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.^note 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.
• Conspicuously, in the scene where Krypton explodes, the planet's core is completely exposed, but there's no visible green glow at all (even though the planet's core is supposed to be made entirely from kryptonite). Make of that what you will.
• In interviews, it was said that Kryptonite will "have a presence", though whether this means the actual stuff will appear in sequels, or it's just referencing the way Krypton's native atmosphere is near-poisonous to Kryptonians who have adapted to Earth's, and negates most/all of their powers, remains to be seen.
  • There was an awful lot of fire involved in the explosion of Krypton. It's possible the core was merely super-heated, possibly molten, and will turn green once it cools and crystallizes.
• Jossed. The entire plot of the sequel depends on Kryptonite.

Kryptonite will be used in this series

• Lex Luthor will synthesize it. We already know from MoS that at least some materials of Kryptonian origins can weaken him. Luthor has the resources and intellect to make this happen. Moreover, he will say this:
  It wasn't easy to synthesize. Took years and cost a fortune. Fortunately, I had both.
• Confirmed.

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.
• Jossed. That airship battle is just Zod's troops trying to stage a coup on Krypton (which fails). Krypton does explode, but it's said to be the result of the Kryptonians trying to draw energy from their planet's core after depleting their natural resources (so it's not completely natural).

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.
• Semi-Confirmed in the sequel, which sees some collaboration between Luthor and the military. Not against Zod though.

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.
• Jossed. The "war" in the trailer is just an attempted coup by Zod (which is resolved fairly quickly), Jor-El is shown trying to convince the Kryptonian High Council to respond to the core disturbances before the coup happens.

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.
    • Don't be so black and white, dude. Besides,wasn't there an episode where Ollie learned that he should rethink filling people with arrows? (the one where he broke into an asylum)
• 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."
• A young boy is watching a news report in an orphanage about Superman and looks on admiringly. He steps outside and a glowing figure with long hair appears and tells him he has been chosen for a great destiny. A light flashes and surrounds the boy, who has now become an adult with a red outfit, a cape and lightning bolt on his chest. He shouts his trademark "Shazam!" before flying into the air.
  • Won't saying that revert him back to Billy?
    • Sadly, not anymore
  • Good point. But They'll need to find some way to fit that phrase in because that's how most people know Captain Marvel.
• After the events of the movie, reports start coming in of heroes from all around the world including a masked man in Gotham, a man in red moving at incredible speeds and a flash of green light over Coast City. All of these are being watched by a shadowy figure who is looking through profiles on each of Them. He says "The time has come" and we see a man dressed in a long cloak and a hat obscuring his face. There is a flash of light and he disappears.
• After the battle with Zod, an African-American scientist is seen entering a laboratory and asking how everything is coming along. He's clearly anxious so we know it's more than simply business. Another scientist approaches and says "Silas. I think We have been able to save him. You can see him if You like". Silas enters a room and the camera shows a young man inside of a giant metal suit with only his face visible. Silas asks "Victor. Son, can You hear Me?" before Victor's eyes open.
• At the end of the movie Lois Lane or Perry White grabs and old news story dated from the 30's. While mentioning a guy who dress like a bat in Gotham who fights crime. He mentions that he's wasn't the first or only one.
• The U.S. Military is still wary of Superman but has formed an uneasy alliance with him. They also start tracking a signal being emitted in Canada where They dig up what looks like a spaceship which They bring back to a base. They start wondering if Superman was lying to Them and if this is the first part of an invasion. While the authorities are arguing, the ship opens up and we see a young blonde girl dressed up with Superman's outfit inside. She asks "Where is Kal-El?" before the film ends.
• Not a popular character and he won't go bad right away but I think he has potential if done right. The end credits roll and the camera pans out and shows an audience watching it in a movie theater. A group of teenagers leave and one asks "So what did You think, Superboy?" to which another young man named Clark Kent responds sarcastically "That's funny. I never heard that one before". They make plans to meet later at the beach. Clark arrives in a Superman Halloween costume and They watch a comet pass. A vortex opens and Superman approaches Clark who is feeling unusual. He says he needs his help and he needs him to follow him back to his world now. Clark is speechless and finds himself floating through the air. The vortex remains open and Superman says "We need to go now" as he and Clark fly through it.
• I've got one! The camera pans out from Earth deep into space. It keeps going further and further, finally focus on...a motorcycle. In space. We see a figure sitting on it, monitoring news reports about Superman before eventually proclaiming "Hope you're ready, boy scout, 'cuz the Main Man's comin' for you!"
• I got one, a young circus acrobat and his family just witnessed a recent flyby of Supes during their metropolis visit. The Acrobat looking at how majestically the alien moves, gets inspired to improve his acrobatics, just as his family's troupe moves to Gotham City. Along the way he bumps into a mysterious girl in a blue cloak who sheds a tear just from looking at the boy as if she emphatically knows what's gonna happen to him. Meanwhile in the Jungle a sick boy receives medicine. Everything goes fine until all of the sudden his skin turns green. While in space, to settle a conflict a red haired golden skinned girl she escapes her captors and makes her way towards earth.
• All Jossed, as of 2016. Some of these characters were teased in 2016 movies, but not this way.

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".
• A bald man in a suit walks down a hall and enters into a room with armed guards posted outside and requires security clearance. He enters and we see an enormous green and purple metal suit with various scientists working on it. One says "The suit is almost finished, Mr Luthor" to which Lex responds "I've got just one more thing I'd like to add to it" and takes out and opens a small box. We don't see what the scientist sees but his face is covered in a strange green light.
  • ...And once he's defeated, he goes into hiding. Seeing he's now a wanted fugitive, he gets out a laptop. He pulls up a report of an archaeological accident in Egypt, scans of strange energy readings found in deep space, and a list of contacts (including Jack Napier, Slade Wilson, Barbra Minerva (or maybe Pricilla Rich), Leonard Snart, a man known only as David, Dr. Doris Zeul, and others). He smiles and says to himself "Time for plan B".
• Despite his heroism, there are members of the Military who still don't trust Superman and see him as a threat. We see a high-ranking Military man walking down a hallway in a Government building. He enters a room and two soldiers salute him saying "General Lane, it's an honor to have You here, sir. The prototype is almost finished". The camera then shows Henry Ackerdson on an operating table with a metal piece at the centre of his chest which starts glowing green as General Lane develops a sinister smile.
  • I think "Henry Ackerdson" is just a ruse in Justice League: Doom. Should be John Corben.
• Luthor is in his lab working on a large computer with some other scientists typing relentlessly. After a few moments, he says "I've found it. Get an audio link going now!". There is a moment of static before Luthor asks "This is Lex Luthor of Earth. You are approaching My planet. State Your name and intention". A deep, sinister voice (I personally think Benedict Cumberbatch would be perfect for it but other actors can also work) responds "I am the knowledge of ten thousand worlds. I am the Brain interactive Construct and I am the last survivor of Krypton". Luthor replies "Get to Earth as soon as You can. We have much to talk about".
• The camera shows a headline about Superman and pans out to show it being read by an old man in bed. He is in a large bedroom surrounded by works of art, historical artifacts, well-worn books and weapons displayed on the wall. A guard enters the room and says "It is time, sir" and the old man gets out of bed. He is very weak and struggles to walk but moves nonetheless. He is escorted outside of his extremely large and fancy home. Cut to him in a large cavern with a strange green glow and a large pool of water in the middle. The man wades into the water and submerges himself completely. He then emerges as a much younger version of himself and proclaims "The world has not yet seen the might of the Demon's head".
• All Jossed. There's no stinger. There is, however, a brief shot of a "Lexcorp" logo on a truck in the final battle, confirming that Lex Luthor is indeed out there.

If or when Luthor does appear...

• Lex Luthor is a Large Ham American businessman in public with a crowd, while in reality, he is an evil sociopath where people aren't seeing him like interacting with Superman. As shown in the third trailer, Lex Corp was featured with a American flag front over it. This can lead to an idea that Luthor built his company using his American businessman gimmick. When Superman started to fly around the city that Luthor built and doing his hero stuff, Lex gets jealous and declares that Superman is an illegal alien and leading to more Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, but ending with everyone declaring Superman isn't an alien and is from Earth.
• In Batman v. Superman, Lex's motivation for hating Superman is less "he's an illegal alien and I'm jealous of him" and more "he vaguely reminds me of God and my abusive father."

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.

The final movie in the new series will introduce the Legion of Super-Heroes

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.

The sequel will introduce Lex Luthor and Brainiac as the villains

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.

• Sounds very much like Justice League. Really, just adapt the DCAU arcs like "Starcrossed", "Divided We Fall", "Twilight of the Gods" into the big screen and you get instant awesome.
• Luthor is in the sequel. Braniac isn't.

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
  • Definitely not the silly version. Smallville built him to be a credible threat and that might work.
    • Smallville!Bizarro? Really? Why not just make him more like Match when he was in Young Justice (2010)?
    • Match is the Evil Counterpart of Superboy, not Superman, and he is more like Superboy-Prime.
    • That's what I'm saying: have Superman fill in for Superboy and make Bizarro more like the berserker insane clone that Match was.
  • Possibly created by Luthor's scientists from Zod's DNA that he lends from the military who's been holding Zod's body.
• Mr. Mxyzptlk
  • The Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? version, maybe?
• Parasite
• Mongul
• Imperiex
• Metallo
• Intergang
• Ultraman
• Toyman
• Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman
• Maxima

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.

• Not to mention being an awesome nod to the Superman that 90s kids grew up with.
• And the Superman the 00s kids grew up with. It is obviously following the DCAU style, but it is a good thing because it is more "personal" then a random space invader.
  • (original poster) Well, I didn't care for Superman Unbound, but I never really liked the 'Kryptonean AI' concept.
• Jossed. There are quite a few intelligent robots on Krypton, but none of them are called "Brainiac", and they're all shown to be quite benevolent.

If and when Darkseid appears (probably in Justice League)

He WON'T be an Anti-Climax Boss. For SHAME, Smallville!

• I can't see how he could be an Anti-Climax Boss. Smallville was just one of the kind (and not in the good way).
  • Just being cautious, I suppose

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.
  • I checked. It doesn't say that anywhere.
    • No, but it does say that in the actual film. The Kryptonians withdrew their expansionist efforts on other worlds and left their people to die there as they became more isolationist. Needing a power source, they tapped the core of their planet, and destroyed themselves in the process.
    • Look at Kryptonian ships and their design. It could be that the Kryptonians *built* the Reapers (ie they are the true Precursors). After the Reaper A.I.s go rogue, the Kryptonians lock them up in the Phantom Zone but the war with them cost Krypton so much in way of resources that they had to go the risky route of tapping into their home planet's core. This was also the true reason why the colonies were all abandoned, they fell during the war. When Krypton went "boom", the Reapers got loose.

At the end of the credits will say "Superman will return in Justice League"

How awesome would that be?

• Yeah, that wouldn't happen until Justice League 2.
  • As long as it doesn't say "Clark Kent will return". I like to keep some hope at the end of a superhero movie, thank you very much.

• Jossed, sadly. There's no direct Sequel Hook at the end, just a scene of Clark settling into his new job as a reporter at the Daily Planet.

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

• To elaborate: Scarecrow and Batman both rely on fear; Zod and Superman are both kryptonians with the same powers. Joker and Lex Luthor are their archnemesises, while Bane/Doomsday is the Invincible Villain.
  • Lex Luthor as the villain of the next movie would make sense as it would follow the pattern of The Dark Knight Saga. The first film features a villain whose origins are tied to the hero. Both Superman and Zod are from Krypton, and Batman and Ra's al Ghul trained with the League of Shadows (and Scarecrow used the League's fear compound). The Big Bad of the second film is then the hero's most well known and iconic adversary; Joker for Bats and Lex for Supes.
• Actually it was Ra's al Ghul and Scarecrow, but nice idea.

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.
• Confirmed. Lois finds out about Clark's powers in the first act of the movie, when he still just calls himself "Clark Kent". And Clark does get a job at the Planet in the final scene.

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.

• And he's inspired by the Spartans. Specifically, the Smallville High football team and mascot.◊
• He is Clark.

Jenny Olsen is Jimmy Olsen's relative, not a Gender Flip.

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.
• It's left pretty unclear. We don't really see enough of Jenny (other than in a pivotal scene where Perry has to save her from a pile of debris) to see if she really resembles Jimmy Olsen all that much.
  • The character's name in the end credits is "Jenny Jurwich."

Pa Kent will die yet again.

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.
• Confirmed. Jonathan is killed in a tornado in one of the flashback scenes, when Clark appears to be in his early 20s.

Highly improbable conversation

Clark: What are you trying to tell me, that I can dodge bullets?
Jor-El (possessing Perry White)^note In Smallville Jor-El is known to partially or fully possess older male authority figures to intereact with Clark, including Lionel, Jonathan and Christopher Reeve- er, Virgil Swann. : No, Kal-El. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

• Better yet, another one in the sequel:
  Perry White: With all due respect, General, there is only one way to save our city: Superman.
  General Swanwick: Dammit, White! Not everyone believes what you believe!
  Perry White: My beliefs do not require them to.
• Jossed, to no one's surprise.

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.

• Jossed.

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.
• Though since it's now confirmed that the Kryptonians are designed genetically for their jobs, something similar may be on the table.
• Jossed. Earth's yellow sun, richer atmosphere and weaker gravity are still said to be the cause of Clark's abilities. Zod has very little interest in the potential of humans, as his ultimate plan is to wipe out the human race so that Earth can become a new Kryptonian homeworld.

What is this?

• The kryptonian Eradicator?
• Possibly Nam-Ek, a character speculated to be The Brute of Zod's crew.

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.
• Probably when Superman visits the Phantom Zone.
  • Adding Nightmare Fuel to a place called "the Phantom Zone"... so brilliantly obvious. Probably not as cool as it looked in Injustice: Gods Among Us, but still...
• They're part of a virtual reality simulation where Zod explains his plans for Earth and tries to bring Clark over to his side. They allude to Zod's plan to wipe out the human race and make Earth a new Kryptonian homeworld.
  • Confirmed!

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.
  • Absolutely agreed, but they've got to get it in there somewhere, especially if this is meant as a reconstruction. Kryptonite needs to be made intimidating again rather than the overused plot-device it became by the end of the first run.
• Jossed. There's no stinger.

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.
• Funnily enough, General Zod has done something like that before.
• Jossed. They're environmental suits that protect Zod's soldiers from Earth's atmosphere and sunlight. Unlike Clark, who's had his whole life to acclimate to Earth, people raised on Krypton can be harmed by breathing Earth's air, and they can't cope with the sensory overload from suddenly getting Superman-like senses from exposure to yellow sunlight.

What happens to Kara?

As seen in the prequel comic Kara's scout ship crashes near Canada, with Dev-Em inside. It is also seen that there is a tribal group over there. What happens?

• From what I can tell, (1) Some Inuit tribesmen witness the crash of the ship and it enters folklore. (2) Dev-Em walks off into the blizzard. (3) Kara re-enters stasis for thousands of years until the modern day, when the ship starts emitting a signal during Clark's Most Dangerous Catch days.
• There's a skeleton shown in the spaceship when Clark finds it. Though it's never outright said to be Kara's skeleton (it could be from one of her crewmates), there's also never any mention of any Kryptonians surviving the crash, and Zod explicitly says that all attempts to establish permanent Kryptonian outposts on other planets failed.
  • Didn't anyone else notice that one of the other pods was wide open? This troper took that as a sign that Kara's out there somewhere.

No one else escaped Krypton because of Crippling Over Specialization.

It always seems odd that a highly advanced society can't tell their planet is doomed and that they ignore the one genius who tells them this. But if Krypton has a Fantastic Caste System with people being designed specifically for jobs, then perhaps they ignore Jor-El because he's not designed for geological observation. So even though he's an expert, they'll ignore him because none of the assigned experts are alive or observant enough to point it out. Since their entire culture has effectively become Awesome, but Impractical, Jor-El and Laura conceiving Kal-El naturally could be an attempt to avert this. The over-specialization would also explain why their colonies fail: they can't adapt to different situations.

Lara: They're frightened old men, Jor-El. They've spent their lives extolling the perfection of Krypton. How could they believe now that we will be victims of a cruel fate beyond our control?

• Jossed. No one else escapes Krypton because Jor-El says that evacuating the planet is futile, and that they should focus on repopulating another planet with another generation of Kryptonians. No one else sends anyone because the High Council thinks Jor-El's plan is a waste of time, and Zod just wants to repopulate another planet with a select group of "worthy" Kryptonian bloodlines (which Jor-El opposes).

Kara's distress signal

is what allows Zod to find Earth

• Jossed. Zod and his troops spend years searching Krypton's other extraplanetary outposts (where all the other Kryptonian explorers landed) before they chance upon Earth. There's never any explicit mention of a distress signal coming from the ship, though it's possible that that's how Hamilton and the military found it.
• No, it explained that Zod is really got to Earth because of the distress call. But it's only activated when Clark activated the ship itself.

There won't be a stinger.

Stingers have kind of been Marvel's thing, particularly building up the Avengers. I know that DC wants to eventually get a Justice League movie going, but using stingers to do it would feel like ripping off Marvel's technique.

• Marvel and DC have been ripping each other off for ages. (Example: Bucky and Robin) Why stop now?
• Confirmed.

Making a Justice League movie actually isn't as hard as they're making it look

Someone had to say it.

• With The Dark Knight Trilogy spread over 8 years, I'm more worried that 3 years would be a big rush for 3 Superman films and a Justice League film.
  • I'd agree with that. It's theoretically possible to rush it in 3 years, but it would probably be better to let the characters develop naturally on their own. And rushing Justice League in time to compete with Avengers 2 would smack of Follow the Leader a little too much for my taste.
  • Why do they need to make "Man of Steel" 2 & 3 before Justice League, anyway?
  • Executive Meddling.
    • Figures
• Jossed by the march of time. Making a theatrical Justice League movie is hard. We aren't getting one until November 2017, and that date is only possible because of some very rushed setup in two 2016 movies.

Jonathan Kent won't die.

Maybe they've already confirmed it in an interview somewhere, but the main reason everyone thinks he's dead is because Clark refers to him in the past tense in his "My father believed..." speech. What we don't know is that Snyder is epically trolling us: the line immediately before that is "When I was a child,..." The past tense means his father changed his mind, not that he's passed away.

• Jossed. He dies in one of the many flashback sequences.

Man of Steel will over-compensate for things some fans complain about in Superman Returns.

• Kate Bosworth (23) was "too young" so they got the oldest Lois to date, Amy Adams (38). For reference, Margot Kidder was 30 and Teri Hatcher was 29. Erica Durance was widely thought to look too old, but even she is only 32 by the end of the "prequel series". Unless you count Dana Delany, who would be 57 (!) in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, but she is only voice acting.
• Superman Returns lacked fighting displays of his powers. While some superpowered battles are cool, from the trailers it looks like 30 minutes of aerial combat.
• The smooth, quiet landing and taking off will be replaced by destructive Hancock-style action.
• Confirmed. REALLY over-compensated. SO much action, it's Transformers level.
  • That's YMMV.

Clark's job on a crab-fishing boat is what makes him stumble upon the Fortress...

...Which is hinted to be around before him.

• Jossed. Clark quits the job on the boat fairly quickly, after he's forced to save some workers on an oil rig and decides to lay low. He finds the Kryptonian spacecraft (the closest thing to the Fortress in this version) after covertly tagging along on a military research expedition to investigate it.

Possible villains of a potential Justice League trilogy

• Lex Luthor in the first as Leader of the Legion of Doom, Darkseid in the second, Anti-Monitor in the third.

Jax-Ur didn't participate in Zod's coup

• Jax-Ur's scientific skills seem out of place among the rest of Zod's crew, who are all soldiers. A possible explanation is that he shares the backstory of his original comics' counterpart, being a scientist imprisoned in the Phantom Zone for blowing up a huge chunk out of one of Krypton's moons. The broken moon can be seen in Krypton's sky during the prologue, and the fact that most of the debris can still be seen near the moon would indicate that the damage was relatively recent. He was imprisoned in the same prison ship as Zod and his crew and joined them when they were all released.

How Clark shaves will be revealed

Via a bonus extra in the home video release of the movie. I mean, come on, there are (commercially promoted) debates on how Clark went from bearded to clean shaven between one scene and the next, we deserve some kind of canon explanation for it.

Zod wanted Clark to kill him at the end

• Zod more or less says that Clark took away his purpose in life by the end, and was perfectly willing to accept a fight to the death, even if it meant his death. Zod attacked the family partly because of his hatred for humanity, but also because he wanted to push Clark to the breaking point and kill him. Suicide by Cop, basically. Clark was the only thing on Earth that could kill Zod.
  • That actually makes some sense. If Zod had killed Clark, then what would he do? He would still have no purpose in life.
    • Especially as his heat vision is aimed at where he's looking. It would have been easy to move his eyes and fry that family. Instead he slowly inched his heat vision closer to them to make Clark kill him.
  • Confirmed. Word of God is that at the end Zod had nothing left to live for, but thought that dying in battle would still be an honorable death for him. As Faora said, A good death is its own reward.
  • The movie did everything short of flashing a giant neon red sign in our faces saying that. This is how the fight went: rant about his life no longer having purpose, fight fight fight, outright says he won't stop until one of them dies, fight fight fight, threatens a family in a situation where he could have easily killed them, Neck Snap.

In subsequent movies (let's say the third for the sake of argument), this continuity's Lex Luthor will present himself as a Villain with Good Publicity who wants Clark gone and tries to turn the public against him, because of the absurd collateral damage his battle with Zod caused to Metropolis.

• Alternately, he's a megalomaniac who's holding a massive grudge against Clark for breaking a few of his toys in the first film. Although the first option seems better.
• Confirmed in the sequel. (Although Lex never mentions the collateral damage.)

If and when Luthor appears, to show him as Superman's arch-nemesis, he will be played by a British guy doing Fake American

Wouldn't the meta-implications be brilliant...

• Please may said British guy be Benedict Cumberbatch.
• Jossed. It's Jesse Eisenberg.

LexCorp will play a large part in rebuilding Metropolis after the events of the film.

• Confirmed.

The Codex skull is related to Doomsday

In the comics, Doomsday was birthed on ancient Krypton and is considered pretty much the ultimate lifeform. Perhaps the Kryptonians discovered a part of Doomsday (possibly an early clone) and were so amazed by its genetic complexity that they used it as a template for their own race.

• And Doomsday is later resurrected from Superman's cells.

Humans are Kryptonians who got altered by White Martians

It cannot be a coincidence that Humans and Kryptonians look so alike, and the biggest diffrence are the powers of the Kryptonians. Now in Grant Morrison's run on the Justice League they explained that White Martians messed about with Humanities genome and what were supposed to gods (or truely superpowered Kryptonians) ended up just ordinary humans.

• They just don't buy the idea of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". There was a perfectly fine explanation in the previous Superman films.

Clark took the ship back to the North Pole

It looked mostly intact after it crashed into Metropolis. All he'd have to do is bring it back up north, patch it up, bury it in some ice, whammo, instant Fortress of Solitude.

When we next see him, Superman will have become more like the Big Good we all know and love

Less destructive and with more gentle takeoffs.

• This would make a lot of sense if he's learning what not to do from the collateral damage/destruction of the battle, and as sort of a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome spin on the way smash-bang fight scenes in superhero movies (see: The Avengers, for all they try to lampshade the consequences of that much destruction in a major city) would realistically be something to avoid as much as possible even for the less-experienced supers taking part in them.

The next film will revisit Clark's grief over killing Zod

.He clearly didn't like having to do it. ('Cuz, y'know, he's Superman) He might have been a Sad Clown during the following scenes.

• Word of God indicates that killing Zod is intended as the basis for Superman's no-kill code; having done something like that once and been so badly shaken by it, he'll never, ever want to do it again.
  • Though if Brainiac is the villain in the next film, he might not hesitate since he's a machine.
• Likely, it will follow The Dark Knight Trilogy route and make the second film solidify his no-kill code. Except it will do it better, since it didn't have Supes kill someone for the sake of a one-liner. Maybe have Lex try to show people that this alien who has no place in their society is willing to play judge, jury and executioner, and try to turn the public against Supes. Hell, maybe even have Lex use kryptonite on Clark, sending him into a Heroic BSoD, wherein he will always put off killing for fear of an undiscovered alternative.
• Clark's killing of Zod is never really discussed in the sequel (even though Zod's body appears).

Superboy will appear as Luthor's Dragon

He will be a "Well Done, Son" Guy trying to live up to Luthor's expectations of him and believe Clark to be a Villain with Good Publicity (most likely fueled by Luthor's lying to him and/or the general destructiveness of Clark's fighting), eventually pulling either a Heel–Face Turn or a Heroic Sacrifice upon realizing the truth.

Kara Zor-El has at least one living descendant on Earth

If you accept the theory that she escaped her spacecraft after it crashed back in the Stone Age, maybe she tried to live a normal life on Earth among humans (accepting that she'd never be able to establish a permanent Kryptonian space colony) and ended up giving birth to at least one half-human descendant with rudimentary Kryptonian superpowers. If her family line managed to survive into the present day, it's possible that there are still a few lingering humans scattered around the world with limited Superman-like powers, trying their best to live normal lives. Superman's rise to fame will lead one of them (possibly a young blonde woman who likes blue miniskirts) to reveal herself to the world.

• Alternately, Kara managed to preserve her genetic material with a Kryptonian birthing matrix, leaving open the possibility that someone could awaken one of her genetically engineered offspring if they ever found it (the rules for those things are loose enough that someone could presumably spin it so that said offspring awakens as a teenage girl).
  • ...You mean the one that Clark destroyed with his heat vision?
• Or, in a meta-Mythology Gag, Kara's present-day descendant could become this universe's Power Girl (making Power Girl Supergirl's literal descendant, just as one character evolved out of the other).

At the end of the film, not only Lois, but also Perry White, know Clark Kent is really Superman.

Let's face it, Lois has already learned about Clark Kent's identity. She finds him early on, then meets "Superman". And since Perry White knows details of the story from the scoop, he might've figured it out, too. They both become the Secret-Keeper for him, having a good idea why he took the job at the Daily Planet.

General Zod is Composite Character, part Zod and part Doomsday.

• A Meta WMG rather than In-Universe WMG, but I have to wonder if the parallels between Man of Steel's General Zod and Doomsday are coincidental. In particular, the final fight is very similar to the final Superman vs Doomsday fight from ''The Death of Superman". In both Superman faces off in a brutal one-on-one fight to the death with a genetically engineered creature designed only for killing, who has no higher purpose than killing every living thing on the planet. The fight destroys a large part of Metropolis, and is only ended when Superman is forced to break his code and kill his opponent as the only way of stopping it. The only difference is Superman doesn't die in Man of Steel, but like The Death of Superman, the end is tragic rather than triumphant.
• Doomsday is in the sequel.

Jor-El's armor was a museum piece he broke out from his ancestor's vault.

• Jor-El's fighting skills surprise Zod's troopers, and Zod himself seems taken aback at the sight of Jor-El armored up for battle. And Jor-El's armor seems to have been made by an artisan. Jor-El must have dug it out from Pre-engineering days and trained himself for an eventual confrontation.

If Brainiac appears in a sequel, Superman will say this:

Superman: You may be a super-intelligent android bent on world domination, but as for me, I AM A MAN!!! *Punch*

Kid!Clark was taking special ed classes due to his sensory issues.

This troper is unaware of whether those smaller school buses were used to transport special education students in 1993 (assuming Clark was about 12/13 at the time of the bus accident) but it's possible that even with the coping mechanisms Martha Kent helps him with, he might still be identified (or misidentified) as a possible special needs student. This could explain part of why he's bullied so badly.

Kryptonian Terraforming efforts are responsible for the events of Prometheus.

Clark graduated from either the University of Missouri or Kansas.

While Pa Kent, a farmer, went to K-State to examine Clark's Orphan's Plot Trinket, Clark himself is seen watching a KU football game with interest. And Clark's employment at the Daily Planet requires some amount of explanation. MU has a prestigious Journalism program and a rivalry with KU dating back almost a century. He also wears a Kansas City Royals t-shirt, suggesting he lives near the city that featured their last few football games. He could be watching the game to cheer for the Jayhawks...or against them, since its that type of rivalry.

Kryptonians culturally suffer from a lack of foresight or planning. Mainly due to their upbringing conditioning them to think in predetermined ways.

While Jor-El's summary of Kryptonian history is by necessity brief and possibly a little biased, it opens up some insight on why Krypton ended and why Jor-el believed his generation of Kryptonians were so heavily flawed. The idea that the Kryptonian colonies were never self-sufficient seems to play into a cultural lack of foresight or planning. The Kryptonian kept expanding until Krypton ran out of natural resources to sustain expansion, after which every single colony died out. Later when their genetically engineered Chief Scientist claimed Krypton was going to implode, the Council did nothing about it and did not believe him. The Councillors are both raised and engineered to be politicians, such a claim would spark mass chaos in the population which is something they would never allow. Zod could have simply diverted military assets to create a mass exodus fleet saving at least some of the population but his inclination was to stage a military coup. Jor-El could have saved more people by convincing private individuals to lend their resources to building more ships but it might never have occurred to him to play at politician and the scientist in him considered all the current Kryptonians as "failed experiments". In short more of Krypton could have been saved if not for the lack of forethought or planning in many of their chief decision makers.

The Ancient Kryptonians became the Atlantians and Themyscirans.

Some of the ancient Kryptonians survived landing on Earth, and decided to live in seclusion, away from the dominant races of the planet. Some of them evolved to live underwater. Some of them (mostly female), established their own civilization on an island away from the rest of the world, and they had access to a genesis chamber so they didn't need men to reproduce. They each would have sufficiently advanced technology, which would be mistaken for magic by the ancient humans.

• I don't care if this ever gets confirmed. This is part of my Headcanon now.
• While her fate may be ambiguous at best, Kara could be hiding out in Themyscira for all we know, and might even act as a mentor/friend for Diana.
• Just because Clarke's Third Law worked for a Marvel Cinematic Universe does not mean it would work for a DC one.

Kara is in all likelihood dead, but she gets revived.

In the salvage and analysis for the ancient Kryptonian scout ship, they discover another Kryptonian flash-drive, and a single genetic codex entry. They manage to salvage a single Genesis pod and get it working, and decide "what the hey, let's plug this data in". To their astonishment, it doesn't stop at fetal maturation but continues on for some time until the "fetus" is a full adult. The pod decants (with Superman on hand just in case it goes all Zod)... and out comes a perfect clone; body, personality, and memory, of Kara Zor-El. The humans inadvertently enacted a last ditch effort she made to preserve herself.

• Best origin for Supergirl here so far. Too bad they probably won't be able to justify her "super-cheerleader" look.
  • It is my guess that they would go for a "Superwoman" kind of look for Kara, i.e. without the miniskirt and basically is a copy of Superman's uniform. Hey, they had the guts to remove the red underpants.
    • Yeah, but there's a difference. With Superman, I thought it was cool because it wasn't too different (at least he's not in armor) and looked more alien. With Supergirl, on the other hand, my fanboy crush kinda gets in the way
    • With all the depressing Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, I don't think they are going to take fanservice into account.
    • That's what I'm saying.
    • Since when are form-fitting bodysuits not fanservice?
    • Point taken
• Maybe the drive could actually be discovered (and activated) by Brainiac. That would be a good explanation for why she was aged up (to a probably slightly younger age) but didn't continue to rapidly age.

Jor-El sent a test rocket to Earth

The passenger? A species on Krypton that closely (but not fully, so as it's more believable) resembles a common Earth dog, but it's biology was very similar (to the point where being on Earth had the same effect) to Kryptonians. The rocket made it to Earth, but the rocket got stuck so it was held in suspended animation for a few years.

Jonathan Kent's "stupid" death is meant to indirectly bring in more Surprisingly Realistic Outcome

Superman's Super-Speed would be too limited for him to be invisible to the naked eye, and that his invulnerability would become "just that tough" instead of the solar energy aura, which also means he can't carry people in high speeds without them getting shredded by debris. Depressing, but possible.

If Bizarro shows up

Bizarro will be a Composite Character with Match from the comics: Lex Luthor will have Cadmus Labs attempt to clone Superman. (Possible reasons: ruin Superman's reputation, superpowered bodyguard, weapon against the real Superman, etc.) However, since Cadmus cannot replicate Kryptonian DNA efficiently, the clone will begin to break down, his skin becoming pasty and white. The clone will go insane, having a feral Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad logic. He won't be dumb. Just insane.

Kryptonian robots were based off of Brainiac

Brainiac was a cyborg Coluan criminal, sent into exile. His remains crashed on Krypton, where they studied his (and his ship's) remains and used it as the basis for much of the tech seen on Krypton in the movie.

• Alternate theory: They kept him alive and became one of the important scientists in the Kryptonian government. Before Zod's coup, he was creating a supercomputer called the Brain InterActive Construct to operate the day-to-day operations of Krypton. He believed Jor-El's prediction of Krypton's destruction, so he had his mind downloaded into the supercomputer, and then into a satellite to escape.

The new Batman...

Might actually be Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond. This troper just finds it rather curious that rumours about a Batman Beyond film surfaced around a week before Snyder's formal announcement about the sequel to Man of Steel. Though it has been speculated that the new present-day Batman film can coexist in with the Batman Beyond film, and it isn't out of the question. But it would be interesting to see how the dynamic would work.

• Jossed

Lex Luthor will reverse engineer his own suit of power armor using what's left of Zod's.

The thing was damn near indestructible and was left behind mostly intact in a building owned by Luthor. What better way to fight against Superman on equal footing?

• This doesn't happen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but that film is not going to be Luthor's only appearance in this universe.

Lex Luthor will cameo in the new Batman's first solo film

He will be put on trial for what he does in the crossover film, prosecuted by Harvey Dent. Luthor will be the one who throws acid in Dent's face, making Two-Face the primary villain.

• According to the extended cut of Batman v. Superman, Lex Luthor has been found mentally unfit to stand trial.

The sequel will be Batman hunting Superman, and Lex Luthor will be behind it all.

Totally unlikely to be the actual story, but let's have fun.Someone proposed that Lex Luthor goes bald during the run of the films because he's exposed to something gnarly. What happens in the sequel is that Luthor was exposed during the Battle of Metropolis, and is dying by inches. He thinks that Superman's DNA, being special, could be the key to restoring his own health, and plots to get his hands on Superman. But how do you trap the infinitely strong? He doesn't know, but Batman would. So Luthor sets up a number of "incidents" in Gotham City that look suspiciously like the destruction in Metropolis...

• Batman would also be smart enough to figure out that he's being led on by someone. Genius is Batman's superpower.
  • Confirmed! (Well, except for Luthor wanting to restore his own health. And the "incidents" Luthor frames Superman for take place in Nairomi and Washington DC, not Gotham. And the DCEU's Batman is played like a fiddle by Luthor, genius or no genius.)

Lara was put in house arrest by the Council for conceiving Kal-El. Not that it matters anyway.

Zach Snyder's casualty number of 5,000 in the Zod/Superman fight actually makes sense.

Might as well have some place to debate this. So, first off, the majority of the destruction scene occurs while Superman is in the Indian Ocean fighting the World Engine, with the US Military and the Black Zero toppling buildings and making a large rubble field. However, since this is the second day of an actual alien invasion, one which people likely know has already torn up one small town, hundreds and possibly thousands of people flee the city before the World Engine activates. So this less populated area was wrecked up long before Zod and Superman appear. Then something like the following happens:

• The biggest direct contribution to the mess is the scout ship that Superman trashes , which crashes into a building at the paremeter of the destruction zone.
• Zod kicks an oil tanker that blows up a parking garage after Superman dodges it. The garage wouldn't have that many people in it regardless, and Supes probably knows that, since he actually keeps the fight there for a while.
• The office building that Zod heat visions to death probably falls towards the parking garage and rubble field, again lessening casualties. The fight carries over to a construction sight, again largely uninhabited..
• The majority of casualties afterwards are caused by Zod, who needs to be stopped since he doesn't give a damn about collateral damage and invokes it anytime he moves. When he throws Superman through some buildings, Clark is struggling to ensure he doesn't hit anybody with his body, and immediately brings himself to a haunt before the fight goes skyward, largely ending the destruction.
• So, Superman probably was containing the fight pretty well considering the circumstances, and had almost nothing to do with 99% of the deaths.

Kryptonite will appear in the Justice League movie.

We've seen how boring Kryptonite is when its used as the main threat to Superman. Furthermore, if they want to be realistic, they obviously want to limit its availability. So, the only villain with the resources and knowledge to be able to attain it, will be someone in the neighborhood of Darkseid, requiring a team of heroes. And, when he uses it, it will be to eliminate the only member of the League he considers a threat, leaving the others free to surprise him with their resilience.

At the end of the movie, Clark is hired by the Daily Planet thanks to a forged CV made by Lois for him

While we don't know much of what Clark did between Pa Kent's death and becoming Superman, we know that he lived several years Walking the Earth. It seems unlikely he had the time to get the right background or training to become a journalist. He probably managed to enter the Planet thanks to Lois, who managed to pull some strings in his favor. She's not surprised of seeing him not only because she knows his superhero identity, but also because he's there thanks to her.

Faora and Col Hardy survived and are stuck in the Phantom Zone.

Hardy will eventually be back in the sequels as an ally and Faora will be a neutral party or a Kryptonian terrorist attempting to avenge Zod.

Superman's red underwear is red underwear in this movie.

As in he actually wears it as underwear beneath his suit.

Superman=Jesus, Doomsday=Antichrist

Why else would Superman be compared to Jesus despite not having much in common with him? Just look at Doomsday:

• Jesus died so that others could be redeemed; Doomsday kills for his own survival
• Jesus was punctured by thorns, nails and a spear; Doomsday is covered in spikes
• Jesus is typically depicted as being emaciated; Doomsday is depicted as impossibly muscular
• Jesus is a product of moral divinity; Doomsday is a product of amoral science

Thee's already enough tidbits in Man of Steel to suggest that Doomsday might appear in a follow-up film, so looking back on it, this could very well be an inception of subtext to make the death of Superman look more poetic.

• For what it's worth, Doomsday is in the last half hour of the sequel.

Zack Snyder Intentionally Made Man of Steel as Polarising as Possible

From what we've seen of the Batman v. Superman teaser, public opinion of Superman has been split right down the middle, precisely mirroring fan reactions to this movie. There are even MOS haters who still can't get over it and express their dislike as often as possible, just like Lex Luthor.Having a superpowered alien who completely resembles a human may never seem realistic, but public reactions certainly can be.

Superman's birth family was descended from some angels that didn't want to take sides when Satan rebelled

The angels were turned into mortals (Kryptonians, to be exact as humans did not exist yet). It would explain why the family name is "El".

Jor-El's battle armor belonged to his father before him...

...and thus will show up in the Krypton TV series.

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