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50 free Man of Steel trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Man of Steel trivia quiz covers Zack Snyder's 2013 Superman reboot, the film that launched the DC Extended Universe. The easy questions cover the cast, from Henry Cavill and Amy Adams to Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner, plus the basic plot: Krypton's collapse, the codex, Clark's years of drifting, the Arctic scout ship, Zod's arrival and the fight for Metropolis. The harder ones dig into Faora, Jax-Ur, the World Engine, the Phantom Zone, the Wayne Enterprises Easter egg and how the ending was talked into existence. Behind the scenes it covers David Goyer's pitch to Christopher Nolan during The Dark Knight Rises, the Siegel and Shuster court deadline that forced Warner Bros. to move, the directors who passed, the actors who nearly played Lois, Zod and Faora, the Autumn Frost codename, why Vancouver Island stood in for Alaska, the missing red trunks, Hans Zimmer refusing to use the John Williams march, the $670 million gross and the 56% Rotten Tomatoes score. Every answer was checked against the film's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. For more, try our Superman, DC movies and Justice League quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays Superman in Man of Steel?
Henry Cavill
He was the first non-American to play the part, and had lost Superman Returns to Brandon Routh.
Q 02Who directed Man of Steel?
Zack Snyder
Nolan produced and developed the story with writer David S. Goyer; del Toro turned it down for At the Mountains of Madness.
Q 03Man of Steel was the first film in which shared franchise?
The DC Extended Universe
James Gunn's Superman (2025) rebooted things again as the first film of the DC Universe.
Q 04Who plays General Zod?
Michael Shannon
Mortensen and Day-Lewis were considered; Terence Stamp played Zod in the Christopher Reeve era.
Q 05Who plays Jor-El?
Russell Crowe
Penn and Owen were considered; Crowe said he had not realised he would be wearing Spandex.
Q 06Who plays Jonathan and Martha Kent?
Kevin Costner and Diane Lane
Costner was reportedly disappointed when he read the script after signing on.
Q 07Who plays Perry White, the first African-American to do so in a live-action film?
Laurence Fishburne
He based the character on the 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley, a friend and mentor.
Q 08Why is Krypton destabilising at the start of the film?
Reckless mining of the planetary core
The Council ignores Jor-El's warnings and exiles Zod shortly before the planet blows.
Q 09What makes the infant Kal-El unusual among Kryptonians?
He is the first natural birth in centuries
Jor-El hides the genetic codex of the whole race inside him before launching him to Earth.
Q 10What does Jor-El steal and hide inside his son?
The Kryptonian genetics codex
Zod's scientist Jax-Ur later works out that it is encoded in Clark's cells.
Q 11Where are Zod and his followers imprisoned after their failed coup?
The Phantom Zone
Krypton's destruction sets them free, and they spend 33 years searching for survivors.
Q 12How does Jonathan Kent die?
In a tornado, refusing Clark's help
The refusal is meant to protect Clark's secret and leaves him burdened with guilt.
Q 13Where does Lois Lane first encounter Clark, investigating a buried Kryptonian ship?
The Arctic
The scout ship's Jor-El AI is what finally tells Clark who he is and gives him the suit.
Q 21What was Zod's fate in the original script before Snyder and Goyer changed it?
Being sucked into the Phantom Zone
They asked DC Comics whether Superman would kill if he had no choice.
Q 22Who plays Zod's ruthless sub-commander Faora-Ul?
Antje Traue
Gal Gadot was offered the role but was pregnant, which left her free to become Wonder Woman.
Q 23Which actresses were on the shortlist for Lois Lane alongside Amy Adams?
Kristen Stewart, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde and Mila Kunis
Q 14What does Lois do when Perry White refuses to publish her story about the alien?
Leaks it to a popular blogger
The leak later gets her arrested by the military alongside Clark.
Q 15Why does Lois ultimately keep Clark's secret after tracking him to Smallville?
Hearing about Jonathan Kent's sacrifice
She keeps fuelling Perry's suspicions all the same.
Q 16How long do Zod's forces wait after Krypton's destruction before detecting Clark?
33 years
Clark activating the scout ship is the signal that draws them to Earth.
Q 17What does Zod intend to do with the codex?
Breed new Kryptonians on a terraformed Earth
His genetic-purity plan would wipe out humanity, which is why Clark refuses to join him.
Q 18What is the name of Zod's most powerful terraforming device, deployed against Metropolis?
The World Engine
Clark destroys the platform on the far side of the planet while the military hits Zod's ship.
Q 19What does the military use to create the singularity that sends Zod's troops back to their prison?
Clark's infant pod
It leaves Zod alone on Earth with nothing left to lose.
Q 20How does the climactic fight with Zod in Metropolis end?
Superman snaps Zod's neck to save a family
Nolan opposed the killing until Goyer added the heat vision threatening trapped civilians.
Adams had auditioned for Lois twice before, once for an unmade early-2000s film and once for Superman Returns.
Q 24During story talks on which Batman film did Goyer pitch Nolan his Superman idea?
The Dark Knight Rises
Warner hired Nolan to produce and Goyer to write on the strength of The Dark Knight's success.
Q 25Whose family won a 2009 court ruling that pressured Warner Bros. to start a Superman film by 2011?
Jerry Siegel's
Otherwise the Siegel and Shuster estates could have sued for lost revenue on an unproduced film.
Q 26Which comics writer told Warner in 2008 to 'treat Superman Returns as the Ang Lee Hulk'?
Grant Morrison
Waid, Johns and Meltzer pitched too; Waid later ended up among the finished film's detractors.
Q 27Under what codename did filming begin in August 2011 near DuPage Airport?
Autumn Frost
Snyder shot in 2D and converted to 3D in post, wary of the format's limitations.
Q 28Which Illinois town stood in for Smallville?
Plano
Filming ran there from August 22 to 29, 2011.
Q 29Which Vancouver Island towns pass for Alaska in the film's first hour?
Ucluelet and Nanaimo
Their winter mist and rough seas did the job; the oil rig rescue was shot on Vancouver's North Shore.
Q 30What traditional feature is missing from the redesigned Superman suit?
The red trunks
Snyder said the producers tried to make trunks work with the darker suit but could not.