Michael Shannon rejected 'mindless' Star Wars role

Michael Shannon turned down a part in 'Star Wars' as he didn't want to be "stuck in a franchise".

The 48-year-old actor was offered an undisclosed role in the sci-fi series in 2016 but said no as he considers the blockbusters to be "mindless entertainment".

Michael told Empire magazine: "I'm always a bit wary about those giant movies. Because they take a lot of time and I don't find them very stimulating to work on.

"I don't ever want to get stuck in a franchise. I don't find them interesting and I don't want to perpetuate them. If I'm making something, I want there to be some kind of purpose to it – I don't want to make mindless entertainment.

"The world doesn't need more mindless entertainment. We're inundated with it."

Despite his dislike of movie franchises, Michael reprises his role as General Zod in the new DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film 'The Flash' – although he did not expect to be back for another movie having first played the antagonist a decade ago in 'Man of Steel'.

The 'Nocturnal Animals' star explained: "Yeah, I didn't see myself playing Zod again, because he was dead. It's actually one of the reasons I made 'Man of Steel' in the first place – it was a one-and-done. So I was pretty shocked to hear about the reprisal of the role.

"But I like the story that 'The Flash' is telling and I wasn't there for a long amount of time – I was just there a couple of weeks – so it didn't break my back to do it."

However, Michael recently admitted that he wasn't satisfied with his work on the film.

He told Collider: "Yeah. I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't quite satisfying for me, as an actor. These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures.

"It's like, 'Here's this person. Here's that person. And they're fighting!' It's not quite the in-depth character study situation that I honestly felt 'Man of Steel' was."