Bruce Timm on Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" Ending: "I Wanted To Do That"

CBR

By Meagan Damore

Published Jun 8, 2015

The animator reveals to CBR News that the controversial conclusion of "Man of Steel" mirrored his original plans for "Superman: Doomsday."

Held by many fans as the benchmark for how the iconic hero should be portrayed when making the leap from comics to other media, it might be a bit of a surprise learn that one of the creators of "Superman: The Animated Series" once planned a story which held something in common with director Zack Snyder's less revered "Man of Steel."

In an interview with CBR News about "Justice League: Gods and Monsters," "Superman : TAS" executive producer Bruce Timm explained how the controversial actions Kal-El took in order to defeat Zod in "Man of Steel" actually mirrored his original plans for the animated "Superman: Doomsday" film.

"A couple years back, when 'Man of Steel' came out, I remember the frenzy of the fans when they said, "Oh, I can't believe Superman killed General Zod! Superman would never do that." When I was watching the movie, my first thought was, "Well, dang, I wanted to do that in the Doomsday movie, when we had Superman versus Doomsday,'" Timm told CBR. "I was going to have Superman do exactly the same deed. Doomsday was going to be getting ready to kill some innocent bystanders, and Superman was already mortally wounded, and he was going to use his last bit of strength to break Doomsday's neck."

"DC wouldn't let me do it," he added. "I said, 'OK, well this version of Superman can do that.' Nobody could ever say Superman can't do that. This version of Superman, we don't know what he's going to do."

Perhaps, then, it's not a surprise to learn that Timm's latest project will walk a similarly dark path. "I have mentioned this before, one of the things that intrigues me about these characters is the fact that they have a completely different sense of moral obligation and duty than the traditional Justice League. They will cross lines that the traditional Justice League characters won't."

"Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles" launches today via Machinima. The animated feature film directed by Sam Liu, produced by Timm and Alan Burnett, and starring Benjamin Bratt, Michael C. Hall, and Tamara Taylor, arrives July 28.