A Man of Steel Deleted Scene Would Have Made Zod's Death Less Traumatizing

Man of Steel writer David S. Goyer reveals the one scene cut out from the film that would have made Superman’s decision to kill Zod more cathartic.

Fans upset with that pivotal Man of Steel moment might be comforted knowing Superman already learned how to deal with the decision in one of the film’s deleted scenes.

Writer David S. Goyer was well aware of the fan protest caused by Zod’s neck-snap scene in 2013’s Man of Steel. Superman stressed to the point where he had no choice but to break his "no-kill" rule would be a departure from canon. It would also be very traumatic to fans who never even considered Superman would do such a thing. Collider reports on Goyer’s dilemma, also confirming that there was a deleted scene in Man of Steel that could have made Superman’s decision less traumatic. That cut-out scene could have also worked as perfect foreshadowing.

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"Ironically there was a scene we wrote that didn’t get filmed in which Jonathan takes young Clark hunting and they kill a deer, and young Clark is just gutted by the act and Jonathan says, 'It's a powerful thing to take a life, even if you’re forced to take a life.'" Goyer clarified the scene was never shot, so there’s no chance of it surfacing in a Snyder cut. It’s still easy enough to visualize as one of several childhood memories Clark shared with Jonathan Kent, and would have been as effective foreshadowing as Harvey Dent's "you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" line in The Dark Knight.

Goyer said that Zod's death scene in Man of Steel was a huge risk they decided to take, seeing a similar gambit paid off in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. "I absolutely understand a lot of people had problems with it. When I have had a hand in adapting these things, you wanna be as respectful to the core material as possible but you also can’t protect against failure. You have to take big swings," Goyer admitted, saying the decision was also greenlit by DC's editorial staff. "It doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake, but if you sit there and you say, 'I don't wanna take any risk. I’m worried I might offend a portion of the audience,' I don't think that's a particularly healthy way to try to make a film or a television show."

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Man of Steel would have also had an alternate ending with Zod surviving, keeping Superman’s moral compass intact. Goyer was not keen on it, saying, "The idea was that Superman would – there was one of those sort of cryopods on the ship that ends up becoming the Fortress of Solitude that he's able to put Zod back into and then throw out into space. We did talk about it and maybe some people would’ve been happier with that, but it felt like a cop out for the story that we were telling."

The Man of Steel returns in James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, which is expected to be filmed next year and released in 2025.

Source: Collider

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