Michael Shannon's General Zod is confirmed to appear in The Flash, and it actually makes a lot of sense for the Man of Steel villain to return to the DCEU. Despite the recent delay, The Flash was one of the main attractions of Warner Bros.' panel at CinemaCon 2022. Among the film highlights promoted at the event are Sasha Calle's Supergirl, Michael Keaton's Batman, and the surprising return of General Zod.
Despite being the first solo film of the Scarlet Speedster, The Flash is close to being an ensemble-type of the movie event. On top of telling a Flash story, the film will have the mission of reshaping the DCEU and setting up the future of the franchise. Direct consequences of The Flash for the DCEU timeline are already confirmed, as Michael Keaton's Batman will be staying in the franchise and will have a mentoring role in Batgirl.
The reason why The Flash can have such an impact on the future of the DCEU is that it will deal with the Multiverse and time travel, which helps explain how General Zod will be in the film. The speed force and messing with time-space are common elements in Flash stories, namely in last decade's game-changer comic book Flashpoint. While The Flash is not a direct adaptation of Flashpoint, the film has already been confirmed to deal with alternate realities and changes made to the past, with the main evidence being the Flash going to Michael Keaton's Batman universe and, on a different occasion, revisiting the death of Nora Allen. Likewise, it is possible that Flash will revisit other moments in history, more specifically in the history of the DCEU. Just as the Avengers returned in key moments of their own stories involving the Infinity Stones in the MCU, it is possible that Barry Allen returns to the events of Man of Steel's Black Zero, thus explaining why General Zod is in the film.
As is common in most of the occasions that the Flash goes back in time, changes to the timeline will likely occur. This can lead to Michael Shannon's Zod not dying in Man of Steel, thus completely changing the rest of the DCEU. That way, General Zod could interact with Supergirl, who could originally be from the DCEU, an alternate DCEU timeline, or from Michael Keaton's Batman universe. Another possibility is that General Zod in The Flash is the one from Burton's reality, and in that universe, everything turned out very differently from the DCEU. Zod may have defeated Superman, and thus Supergirl had to step up as the world's greatest protector. The Flash will obviously lead to changes in the DCEU, as proven by Batgirl, and altering events from the franchise's very first film can explain why that happens.
With the doors of the DC Multiverse open, possibilities abound to explain how General Zod is back in The Flash. The film will be one of the DCEU's most ambitious projects, and revisiting characters or moments from previous films such as Man of Steel is a testament to that. It remains to be seen if General Zod's return will be for a cameo only or if his appearance will have long-term consequences for the DCEU.
