i like zod. and i'm not at all opposed to doing a new origin story. but that doesn't mean i want the same movie with new effects.
zod was a nobody before, and a nobody after (pending link verification, of course) the films. and, i think that relative insignificance points to how a superman film could be successful and fun when he's facing anyone. the whole mystique with zod is what happened with him in the donner films, and thus any revisiting to the concept is really just revisiting those films. there's no "catering to the character" or the history or anything like that. it's not like they're making a new lex luthor - they're almost literally just remaking a character only known from one other source; the first movies.
granted, one pitfall with superman is that his rogues gallery is pretty lame. outside of lex luthor, it's difficult for the non-hardcore fan to name any, let alone someone who doesn't know comics. it's not like having the joker, the riddler, catwoman, the penguin, etc. hell, i'm a decent supes fan and i can barely name that many. and then the ones i do think of (toyman, mxy, etc.) are lame [for a one-shot movie format].
but if zod was, for all intents and purposes, created in the film (really, everything most people know is just what donner built) then the formula should hold true that a new opponent could be designed. it doesn't have to be darkseid or doomsday, it could be a movie-specific creation.
sure, there's always a chance of a genetically created sun-god thing... but i think the (atrocious) writing / production was the problem with that, not the character.
