We’re a few weeks out from the 10-year anniversary of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, one of the more divisive superhero movies of the modern era. However you’ve felt about it over the years, you’ll be unsurprised to hear director Zack Snyder hasn’t lost his love for it—and in some ways, thinks the cards might’ve been stacked against it from the start.
In a recent Happy Sad Confused episode, he argued the DCEU’s second chapter is important as a superhero movie made with a particular vision that let it stand out from others in its genre. Echoing similar talking points made back in 2016, he asked if audiences “really want a movie [with] all its edges shaved off by focus groups? Do you really want the K-Mart version of your story, a movie that’s had decisions made in the boardroom?” To him, the audience wasn’t interested in watching a movie deconstructing the superhero genre, particularly one where the two main characters fight each other “on a road to deconstructing the ‘why’ of their existence.”
After Batman v Superman came out, everyone had an opinion on it, especially its tone. Back then, there was discourse on whether it was an appropriate watch for kids, and turns out even getting it a PG-13 rating was a bit of an ordeal: Snyder revealed the MPAA kept nitpicking small things like the heroes slammed into things during their big fight, and repeatedly gave an R rating despite several cuts addressing their concerns. Eventually, the board sent a report saying they defaulted to an R rating because they “[don’t] like the idea of Batman fighting Superman,” and it was there that he realized “we were kicking the zeitgeist in the nuts a bit.”
Despite ultimately leaving the DCEU after Justice League and everything that entailed, Snyder isn’t ruling out a return to DC. After all, his trilogy of movies are “a weed that just won’t die,” and his time on Justice Leagueu showed him that anything can happen, whether that’s adapting The Dark Knight Returns or continuing his Snyderverse as a comic or animated movie.
[via Entertainment Weekly]
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