NOTE: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE “MAN OF STEEL”. IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM, YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO TURN BACK.

With the phenomenal release of the Superman reboot “Man of Steel”, critics, fanboys, and average moviegoers have never been in a major divide about the film’s story, action, and interpretation. But unknown to us, the creative team behind the film wasn’t always on the agreeing side either.

We are talking about the movie’s ending where Superman had to kill General Zod to save a bunch of innocent people, resulting in the loudest neck snap in the history of cinematic neck-breakings (Kryptonian bones must be truly hard to crack).

The ending, unsurprisingly, garnered reactions from fans, critics, and even comic book writers, calling it a blasphemy of Superman’s idealistic (and non-murderous) iconography. As far as the film’s creative team, Zack Snyder and David Goyer is concerned, Man of Steel producer Christopher Nolan’s opinion isn’t very different either.

“There’s no way you can do this” as Nolan said regarding Snyder’s proposed ending, according to Goyer. The script originally writes General Zod to be thrown back to the Phantom Zone, an ultimatum Snyder thinks is “less exciting”.

The 300 director reasoned out that by killing Zod, the last remaining Kryptonian other than him, Superman would develop this insatiable hatred for murder, which is an essential part of their version of his origin story.

With Warner Bros giving the blessing, Goyer rewrote the ending and presented it to Nolan, who later said ‘OK, you convinced me. I buy it.’”

For someone who turned the already dark and gritty superhero, Batman, into a darker and grittier reboot, it is surprising that someone like Christopher Nolan would disapprove a superhero movie with murder as the ultimatum. But then again, it is Superman, Batman’s antithesis that we are talking about here.