Michael Shannon on His 'Batman v Superman' Role — and His Flippers for Hands

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By Renata Sellitti

What happens when perennial bad-guy Michael Shannon is in need of some rescue? Shannon got himself into a tight spot on the set of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice while in a Porta Potty. “I was in my costume, and I couldn’t use my fingers because in the sequel I have flippers instead of hands,” Shannon told Vulture at a screening for 99 Homes hosted by Peggy Siegal. “So I had these wax flippers on my fingers, and I couldn’t open the door, and I could hear Zack [Snyder, the director] being like, ‘Where’s Shannon? Where the f— is he?’ and the whole crew was standing around. I was like, knocking on the door with my flippers, 'Let me out of here!'” Fortunately, Shannon had his personal superhero in the “craft-service guy, who doesn’t have the best craft service,” Shannon said. “He was actually paying attention to what was going on. He came over and he opened the door for me. Otherwise I would have gotten fired.”

Wait a minute, though: flippers for hands? There’s been a lot of guesswork around Michael Shannon’s character, who had a snappy death scene at the end of Man of Steel. Shannon appears briefly in the Batman v Superman trailer as a corpse, however, prompting speculation that his character General Zod might become Doomsday. But flippers? Did he contract some sort of Atlantean virus? In either case, Shannon wouldn’t elaborate any further about his brief appearance in the trailer. “Well, I haven’t seen the trailer either, so I don’t know what I am in the trailer,” he said. “I could be a toaster or a Porsche, I don’t know.” (He didn’t say where he’s seen a toaster with flippers.)

See the glimpse of Shannon in the trailer:

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