Digital Spy reports that Man of Steel writer and Superman/Batman co-writer David S. Goyer talked about the controversial ending of this summer’s Superman movie during last night’s BATFA and BFI Screenwriters’ Lecture.

While Superman has been reluctant to take a life in the comics, Goyer stated that’s not the case for the movies.

“We were pretty sure that was going to be controversial,” Goyer said. “It’s not like we were deluding ourselves, and we weren’t just doing it to be cool. We felt, in the case of Zod, we wanted to put the character in an impossible situation and make an impossible choice.

“This is one area, and I’ve written comic books as well and this is where I disagree with some of my fellow comic book writers – ‘Superman doesn’t kill’. It’s a rule that exists outside of the narrative and I just don’t believe in rules like that. I believe when you’re writing film or television, you can’t rely on a crutch or rule that exists outside of the narrative of the film.

“So the situation was, Zod says ‘I’m not going to stop until you kill me or I kill you.’ The reality is no prison on the planet could hold him and in our film Superman can’t fly to the moon, and we didn’t want to come up with that crutch.

“Also our movie was in a way Superman Begins, he’s not really Superman until the end of the film. We wanted him to have had that experience of having taken a life and carry that through onto the next films. Because he’s Superman and because people idolise him he will have to hold himself to a higher standard.”

In another article on the event, The Hollywood Reporter says that Goyer was asked whether he was writing the upcoming Justice League movie as well. “Might be, can’t say,” he said.