You'll Be Thrilled to Hear We'll See More Batfleck Than Cavill in 'Batman v Superman'

By Cindy Davis | DC Movies | September 10, 2015 |

Zack Snyder is doing the press rounds for ~~Batman v Superman~~ a Doritos’ Super Bowl filmmaking contest — he did actually talk about his upcoming film. Oh and he got in a crack at Marvel too, so uh, good job? Maybe this whole Marvel v DC thing is like football, and you’ve gotta talk a lot of shit about the other team.

As he and writer Chris Terrio (Argo) lay the groundwork for Justice League, Snyder spoke about the planned DC slate of films (including Batman v Superman, ten superhero movies are coming), which he says are “epic” in comparison to Marvel’s.

“It’s a tricky process, setting up the DC universe, or Justice League. The credit goes to Chris Nolan because he set the die for the DC Universe in a great way that I tried to emulate. I look at it as more being mythological than, say, bubblegum. And I think that that’s appropriate for Batman and Superman because they’re the most mythological of our superheroes.I feel like he’s right. But I feel like Batman and Superman are transcendent of superhero movies in a way, because they’re Batman and Superman. They’re not just, like, the flavor of the week Ant-Man—not to be mean, but whatever it is. What is the next Blank-Man?
Those are like Shakespearean characters, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, they have inherent drama built into their makeup.”

Snyder also responded to Steven Spielberg’s recent prediction that superhero movies will eventually go “the way of the Western.”

“He might not be wrong. I think it puts more pressure on us, the filmmakers, to not just crank out superhero movies for the sake of it. To me, the one thing I love working in the DC universe is that Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman are American mythology. It’s not about making a superhero, it’s a mythological universe that we live in. That I hope stands the test of time. They stood the test of time. That’s hopefully the sort of magic bullet. But who knows what audiences will want in the future.
But there are still great Westerns. I think it’s whenever anything becomes a ‘genre,’ you have to sort of look at it and try to understand it.”

He’s got a point — there may not be many of the classic-type Westerns anymore, but the genre hasn’t exactly disappeared, and there are good ones to be found (No Country for Old Men, Django Unchained, True Grit, Hateful Eight).

Whatever you may have felt when you heard who was cast as NuBatman will likely only be exacerbated by his most revelatory comment. Asked about rumors that Batman v Superman will focus more on Batfleck than Henry Cavill’s Superman, Snyder seemed to confirm:

“Only in that because it’s a different Batman than the Batman that was in the Chris Nolan movies, so we have a little bit more explaining to do—and you just had a whole Superman movie. But I think only in that way, because you need to understand where Batman is with everything. And that’s more toward the beginning, but it evens back out as it goes on.”

Though DC previously announced both Batman and Superman would appear in standalone films before 2020, there’s no current listing for a Man of Steel sequel.

Finally, Snyder explained his viewpoint on Superman and Batman, their similarities and differences, and how the two see each other.

“They’re actually opposite sides of the same coin. It’s interesting because Batman’s a man and Superman’s a god, if you think about it in those terms. So their relationship is very contentious. What Superman sees as Batman’s limits, Batman sees as Superman trying to control him, acting like an absolute dictator.
What we went after was the humanity of each character. We tried to say, ‘What would Batman have to do to unravel Superman, and what would Superman have to do to unravel Batman?’ Their conflict is based on each others’ understanding of the other’s weakness. The fun of that is when you’re dealing with these mythological creatures—to make them human again, bring them back to earth. And to do that you have to know the rules before you can break them. They have to go all the way to the stratosphere before you can bring them back down.”

I’m not sure anyone will go to see Dawn of Justice for Superman or Batman’s humanity, but I’ll let the experts hash that out in the comments. Meanwhile, Snyder also confirmed rumors that his son is playing Robin are just that — “It’s not true,” and Michael Shannon (General Zod) laughed off that whole flipper thing.

“The pressure that I’m under in this situation sometimes leads me to say silly things like Zod has flippers. It was a false.. red herring, as it were.
It’s the same thing like in the first one with Jor-El. Russell Crowe’s character is kind of like a ghost. So I guess I’m a ghost, kind of.”

Shannon also revealed he did not have any scenes with Batfleck.