With Michael Shannon recently being named to play the evil Kryptonian General Zod in
Man of Steel, the assumption is that his right-hand woman, Ursa, would be tagging along. Ursa's involvement in the story has been rumored for months, even with some names thrown out as possible candidates to play her. She was featured in the first two Superman movies by Richard Donner, portrayed with man hating glee by Sarah Douglas.
Latino Review got some inside info from a source, said to be the same one that broke the news that Kevin Costner would play Pa Kent. The source reveals a wealth of new information on Zack Snyder's film, including some info on a certain female Kryptonian supervillain. Here are the major points of what was revealed....
- You will see JOR-EL and his wife, Lara.
- Daniel Day-Lewis was looked at for JOR-EL and not the villain.
- Krypton will not be a crystal planet like the Donner film; this Krypton will PROBABLY look like the Coruscant skyline from Star Wars. (See image below)
- The Kryptonian villainess is not URSA...Well sort of. The villainess is FAORA.
A lot of this seems to dovetail nicely with what Diane Lane recently said, stating that the story would take Superman basically from infancy to adulthood. The key bit there for me is the last one about Faora. Most people probably don't realize that Faora actually pre-dates Ursa by some 30 years. The Ursa character seen in Superman: The Movie is largely based on her, specifically her irrational hatred of men. On Krypton she was a serial killer who ran a concentration camp where she kept others of her race as slaves. She was ultimately captured and sentenced to over 300 years in the Phantom Zone. When Krypton was destroyed, she managed to survive along with a number of other prisoners. She's a master of the Kryptonian martial art of Horo-Kanu, which attacks the pressure points on the Kryptonian body. She kicked Superman's butt the first time he met, forcing him to flee from the fight.
Latino Review also says that she was a total badass in the script, and serves as Zod's "right hand bitch". I can see Rosamund Pike fitting quite nicely into a role like that. Fingers crossed.
As for this thing being an origin story, it doesn't bother me so much. I don't buy into the idea that people don't know Superman's origin. That's bullpucky. Everyone knows it. But if Zack Snyder and Co. are going to set themselves apart from every other Superman film ever made, it's necessary to provide their own visual interpretation of it.
