Man of Steel Gets Second Female Lead

Warner Bros. has announced that the German actress Antje Traue will be playing the role of Faora in Zach Snyder‘s Superman reboot. Traue’s first english language film was 2009’s Pandorum, so she’s no stranger to science-fiction. As for Faora, no one’s really sure yet.

Faora is a Superman character who’s had a number of different incarnations over time, with the only common thread being that she’s usually connected in some way to General Zod, who is confirmed to be the villain of Man of Steel, and will be played by Michael Shannon. Originally, Faora was, like Zod, a prisoner in the Phantom Zone, the Kryptonian Château d’If, put there because her hatred of men made her a murderer twenty three times over. In her first encounter with Superman, she, actually fluent with a martial art and with all of his powers, kicked his ass. In later appearances she has been both a Kryptonian bounty hunter, a human, and a computer program.

However, it is very likely that Faora inspired a much more familiar female character: Ursa, the girl third of the Kryptonian Phantom Zone villains of Richard Donner’s Superman films, who was characterized as hating all men except for Zod himself, who she was willing to rule alongside of.

Which character Man of Steel‘s Faora winds up taking after is yet to be seen.

(via Geeks are Sexy.)