An anonymous source has leaked an image of what appears to be a promotional poster for the upcoming Superman readaptation, Man of Steel.
The original photo, left, was obtained by MovieWeb. I tried to clean it up and straighten it out a bit for you below.
We can tell a few things from the poster, if it’s real at all. First off, the pose and over-the-shoulder sort of framing is indicative of conflict, it creates a sense of Superman against the world, which strengthens the hypothesis that this Superman film will reflect a more morose and somber Superman, a superhero who is not accepted and feels ever out of place in an alien world.
The helicopter are likely representations of conflict with Human authority, so Superman will seemingly have some clashes with police and military forces throughout, perhaps under the distant direction or manipulation of Zod, as we see the face of Michael Shannon, who plays the part of Zod in the film hidden in the clouds.
The final element is the most interesting and mysterious however, in the distance, a man in shadow stands next to a machine, likely either a robot or a suit of mechanical armor. This is an element which none of the synopses or announcements have discussed, and there are no characters on the cast list which seem robot focused, so who and what could this challenge be off in the distance, and will he/she/it be the primary conflict of the film, or only a sub-plot under the greater threat of Zod and his machinations?
Perhaps we’ll get a new synopsis soon, which will clarify this odd detail. Until then, the best we have is this:
A young reporter named Clark Kent roams the world covering various news stories. When he is compelled to use his secret powers to intervene in a crisis in West Africa, he returns to Smallville to learn more about his origins and the hero he was born to be.
which actually sounds like the plot of Birthright, the current comic book cannon origin story for Superman. However, the Birthright story has no robot monster that I remember, though it also lacks Zod, so I guess liberties are being taken with just what challenges Clark goes up to Metropolis to take on.
Man of Steel, which is directed by Zack Snyder, and stars Henry Cavill, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Shannon, and Russell Crowe, flies into theaters June 14, 2013.
