The reason why an actor from The Flash rejected Star Wars

Actor Michael Shannon, best known for bringing the villainous General Zod to life in the DC Extended Universe, has said that he once turned down a role in Star Wars, citing his distaste for the wariness of big Hollywood franchises.

In an interview with the British media Empire in its print edition, Shannon commented that “I don’t ever want to get stuck in a franchise. I don’t find them interesting and I don’t want to perpetuate them. If I’m making something, I want there to be some kind of purpose to it — I don’t want to make mindless entertainment. The world doesn’t need more mindless entertainment. We’re inundated with it.”

What distinguishes Star Wars from the DCEU for Shannon?

While Star Wars is a large and established franchise, Shannon was appearing in the first step of a franchise that was just beginning and looking to grow with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. But the actor felt that movie had “a very relevant story” where he “didn’t see Zod as a villain.

“It’s basically looking at a civilization that destroyed their own planet and think the solution is to go off and destroy another,” Shannon said. “When you hear that hypothetically, if we destroy the Earth, we might go live on Mars — it’s the same thing.”

However, it is understandable that he had this vision 10 years ago. In a recent interview with Collider, Shannon shared his displeasure at returning to the DC Extended Universe in the recently released The Flash, where he reprises his role as General Zod, but from a multiverse.

“These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures. It’s like, ‘Here’s this person. Here’s that person. And they’re fighting!’ It’s not quite the in-depth character study situation that I honestly felt ‘Man of Steel’ was.”

While, we don’t know what role Shannon might have played in Star Wars, considering the dates, he could easily have appeared in some role in the latest Star Wars trilogy or one of its spin-offs.

Source | Empire (via Variety)