It looks like one of Superman's biggest villains will be getting a makeover when he returns to the big screen in next year's highly anticipated 'Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice'.

Actor Michael Shannon told Vulture that his character will be sporting flippers for hands in the film. He said:

"I was in my costume, and I couldn't use my fingers because in the sequel I have flippers instead of hands," Shannon said. "So I had these wax flippers on my fingers, and I couldn't open the door, and I could hear Zack [Snyder, the film's director] being like, 'Where's Shannon?'"

The 41-year-old Academy Award nominee would not delve into the reason for his new limbs but his story does back up a long bubbling rumour.

It has been speculated for months that Zod could turn out to be the film's ultimate big baddy 'Doomsday'. In January, Comicbook.com published a report which details some of the plot points of the film. According to their source:

'His corpse is stolen (or perhaps just acquired, given his military contacts in most versions of the modern mythology) by Lex Luthor and experimented on, presumably in the hopes of finding a weakness to exploit against Superman. In the course of his experimenting, we've been told that he "triggers the Doomsday genome,''

In the most recent trailer for the film unveiled at San Diego Comic Con last month, Shannon's Zod makes a short appearance as his remains are being escorted by Lex Luthor's assistant Mercy Graves through a research facility of some sort.

Could this theory be true? It would certainly explain why Shannon would be decked out in prop flippers. To know for sure, we'll have to wait and see when Batman V. Superman hits theatres on March 25, 2016.