In honor of the tenth anniversary of “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Zack Snyder attended the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. His highly controversial comic book film debuted to unfavorable reviews on March 25, 2016, but continued to earn an impressive $874 million worldwide.
The main attraction was Snyder’s follow-up to the already divisive “Man of Steel,” which infuriated comic book fans by showing Superman murdering Zod. “BvS” further polarized fans by showing Batman murdering criminals, the two characters becoming close because their mothers are called Martha, among other elements.
Snyder vindicated the movie after a decade, “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? 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?”
The second film in Snyder’s DC Universe, known online as the “SnyderVerse” by his devoted fan base, was “Batman v. Superman.” After Joss Whedon was brought in by the studio to rework scenes and retakes, and after Snyder departed the project due to a loss in his family, “Justice League” followed, bringing with it its own set of controversy.
“I love the mythological journey we went on in these three movies,” Snyder said. “The intensity of where we ended up with ‘Justice League’ and how it evovled and where it came from. That whole insanity. When we were trying for the PG-13 rating on ‘BvS,’ the MPAA kept kicking the movie back to us saying, ‘It’s still an R.’ I remember someone saying we got a report from the MPA saying, ‘We just don’t like the idea of Batman fighting Superman. That kind of makes it an R. He really hits him hard with that sink. That’s rude. That feels like an R.’ I’m just like, ‘Okay… let’s just pretend it’s not Batman vs. Superman for one second.’”
“You realize then that we were kicking the zeitgeist in the nuts and that we were going to anger people,” Snyder added. “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.”
When asked about his fans’ persistent requests for the SnyderVerse to keep going, Snyder responded, “I would never say there is no way. I was on the ride that created ‘Justice League,’ and if you were in my shoes there were numerous times, dark times, when there was no chance that there will ever be my version of it. It will never exist. It can’t… cost, politics, everything stood against. And yet it exists. 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 fuck yourselves if that’s what you think.”
