Zack Snyder joined the Happy Sad Confused podcast to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his highly polarizing comic book film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which grossed a whopping $874 million worldwide despite being released to negative reviews on March 25, 2016. Tentpole was Snyder’s sequel to the already polarizing Man of Steel, which thrilled comic book fans with its portrayal of Superman killing Zod, but BvS only polarized fans further with Batman killing a criminal and the two heroes bonding over their mother both named Martha.
“My 100% honest reaction to ‘BvS’ and how it’s been received in the world is… do you really want a movie that had all the edges stripped away by focus groups?” Snyder said in defense of the film 10 years later. “Do you really need a movie where decisions are made in a boardroom, where ideas are tried out and rendered for your own enjoyment? Do you really want a Kmart version of your story? Is that what you really want?”
“Batman v Superman” is the second film in Snyder’s DC Universe, dubbed the “Snyderverse” online by his legion of fans. Justice League then became polarizing in its own way, with Snyder leaving production due to a family tragedy and the studio bringing in Joss Whedon to rewrite and reshoot scenes. This sparked a social media movement in which Snyder fans called on Warner Bros. to release a “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, which the studio allowed. Zack Snyder’s Justice League will premiere on HBO Max in 2021.
“I love the mythological journey we’ve taken in these three films,” Snyder said. “The intensity of where we got to ‘Justice League,’ and how it evolved and where it came from. The madness of it all. When we were going for a PG-13 rating with ‘BvS,’ the MPAA kept kicking back at the movie saying, ‘It’s still R.’ I remember someone saying that they got a report from the MPA saying, ‘We don’t like the idea of Batman fighting Superman.’ That’s like making it R. He hit him real hard with that sink. That’s rude. It feels like R. I’m just like, ‘Okay…let’s pretend for a second that it’s not Batman vs. Superman.’
“That’s when we realized we were messing with the zeitgeist and trying to piss people off,” Snyder continued. “Not only do they not want their heroes to be dismantled, they also don’t want their heroes to fight each other on the path to dismantling their reason for being. This is also sacrilege.”
The Snyder-Verse ended before Snyder could make two more Justice League films, but Snyder admitted on his podcast that he is “absolutely talking” about bringing these two films to fruition in some way in other mediums, such as comics or animation. Snyder added: “We live in a world where anything is possible.”
When asked about fans’ continued pleas for the Snyderverse to continue, Snyder responded, “I’m definitely not saying there’s no way.” “I was on board with the birth of Justice League. If you were in my shoes, there were a lot of dark times where there was no chance that my version would ever exist. It would never exist. You can’t do that…The cost, the politics, everything was against it. But it does exist. Fans should not forget that they did it. They also raised a lot of money for suicide prevention. They got a lot of flak for being toxic or something, but they literally saved humanity.” ”
The DC Universe was then revived at Warner Bros. under the direction of James Gunn and Peter Safran. Gunn directed the new “Superman” movie, which received mostly positive reception from critics and fans when it was released last year.
“James is cool. I wish them the best. That’s the way it is,” Snyder said. “That movie trilogy is like a weed that never dies. It grows on its own. It has a life of its own. It has nothing to do with James’ Superman. It’s great, and it’s great for them. I can’t wait to see the next movie. It’s great. To me, it’s not the same thing. It’s different.”
Watch Snyder’s full interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast in the video below.
