Zack Snyder has marked the 10th anniversary of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with a not-so-subtle defence of the film, and a few revealing stories about just how contentious it was, even before it reached cinemas.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder looked back on the 2016 comic book tentpole, which opened to largely negative reviews on 25th March of that year but still went on to gross $874 million worldwide.
A decade on, the director shows no sign of second-guessing his choices.
“My 100% honest reaction to BvS and how it’s received in the world is… Do you really want a movie that’s had all the edges shaved off it by the focus groups?” he said.
“Do you really want a movie where the decisions have been made in a boardroom, or tested ideas have been rendered for your enjoyment? Do you really want the Kmart version of your story? Is that what you really want?”
Reflecting on the broader reaction to the film and his approach to the DC characters, Snyder was philosophical.
“You realize then that we were kicking the zeitgeist in the n-ts and that we were going to anger people,” he said.
“Not only do they not want their heroes deconstructed, they don’t want their heroes battling each other on a road to deconstructing the why of their existence. That’s another sacrilege.”
Batman v Superman was the second film in what became known online as the SnyderVerse, following Man of Steel and leading into Justice League, a production that took on a life of its own after Snyder departed due to a family tragedy and Joss Whedon was brought in to complete it.
The subsequent fan campaign to release Snyder’s original cut became one of the most vocal movements in modern cinema history, eventually resulting in Zack Snyder’s Justice League debuting on HBO Max in 2021.
Snyder spoke warmly about those fans, pushing back on criticism of their reputation.
“The fans should never forget they did that. They also raised a ton of money for suicide prevention. They did a lot of good. They catch a lot of flak for being toxic or whatever, but they literally saved human lives. You can go f–k yourselves if that’s what you think.”
The SnyderVerse ultimately ended before he could complete his planned trilogy of Justice League films, though he hasn’t entirely closed the door on revisiting those stories in other formats.
“We live in a world where all that is possible,” he said, confirming he has “absolutely talked about” bringing those unmade films to life through animation or comics.
