'Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice Trailer' May Have Revealed A New Villain From The Comics; Who Is Doomsday?

Warner Bros. and DC Comics gave fans an early Christmas present on Dec. 2 with the release of the second official trailer for “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” While the first trailer was very light on the details of the upcoming movie, the most recent one not only laid out the circumstances for the two hero’s beef, but appeared to introduce a pretty scary villain from the comic book source material as well.

The trailer opens with the two heroes as their alter egos -- Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) -- at a dinner party. They discuss the vigilante problem in the world and clearly have different definitions of what justice looks like. Their conversation is tense, but gives way quickly to the real star of the new trailer, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). The quirky villain breaks up the conversation as the teaser cuts away to scenes showcasing the bout between Batman and Superman. It soon reveals Luthor’s plan for stopping the Man of Steel, and it requires a very familiar face.

General Zod (Michael Shannon), who was the principal baddie in “Man of Steel” returns as a corpse acquired by Lexcorp. It is heavily implied that Luthor uses the body to somehow create the monstrous creature that attacks Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) at the end of the trailer. While the creature looks like some generic monster villain, many eagle-eyed comic book fans believe that it is much, much more.

As ScreenRant notes, the monster bears a striking resemblance to the comic book character Doomsday. For those that aren’t familiar with the character, his biggest claim to fame is that he once killed Superman in single combat during the iconic 1992 storyline aptly titled “The Death of Superman.” Novice DC fans excited to see the movie are likely wondering what they need to know about the character ahead of his potentially big reveal in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Fortunately, it doesn’t look like they need to know much given that the villain’s origins appear to have been changed from page to film. In the comics, he was a prehistoric monster from Superman’s home planet of Krypton. He is eventually captured by a mad scientist who keeps subjecting him to death and then reviving him to eliminate all weakness. He escapes, goes on a killing spree across the galaxy and eventually winds up on Earth.

However, the trailer implies that the cosmic scientist has been replaced by Luthor and his experiments with Zod’s body have somehow transformed the “Man of Steel” bad guy into Doomsday. It’s worth mentioning that the creature in the trailer has not been confirmed as Doomsday, but his arrival falls directly in line with some previous rumors that hinted the villain would show up. One month before the release of the new trailer, CinemaBlend reported that Doomsday would be made of Zod’s corpse and battle the three heroes in a climactic fight that forces them to put aside their differences. So, while Doomsday’s name and origins haven’t been explicitly stated within the film’s canon, the creature’s arrival in the trailer seems to coincide nicely with previous reports.

It looks like fans may have to wait until “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” hits theaters on March 25, 2016 to find out what happens with Doomsday.