He's always a government/mafia henchman who puts up a facade of being religious or righteous, but is actually a sexually frustrated cold blooded killer.
It's getting tiresome honestly.
I'd recommend "Bug" (2006) and "Take Shelter" (2011) for something different, from both Shannon and the films themselves. I'm not a big fan of this one, personally.
shareI’ve only recently seen Superman:Man of Steel with Shannon as Zod and then happened to watch The Shape of Water for the second time.
When I first saw TSoW I wasn’t really aware of Shannon and having seen him in a few things now, specifically Superman I came to the conclusion that the characters in the two films were similar in the fact that they were men with one mission and would fulfil it at all costs. It was almost sad to think that they were so belligerent and focused that it lead to destruction and deaths, including their own.
He always seems to play someone who lacks a sense of humor. I don't mind him being cast in movies though. He's got screen presence, but his range seems limited to very serious or scary, and subtly or extremely disturbed characters.
shareI agree, he tends to get casted in those roles. For this one, it's almost an identical role as in Boardwalk.
He does have other ones but he much less famous for. Bug is one of my favourite.