To say that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice forever changed DC movies and Zack Snyder’s career is an understatement. After the polarizing superhero film was released in 2016, the then-heads of DC Films were in an uproar and wanted to change everything about Snyder’s planned universe.
Many critics and fans pointed out that Batman v. Superman lacked humor, jokes, or anything comparable to what Marvel released then. We also saw the MCU movie films around to put a similar film in competition with the Snyder film. All of this made a perfect storm to see Snyder’s vision changed by the studio, affecting every movie released after.
What got hit the hardest was Snyder’s Justice League move. Before it was hit with one of the most controversial sets of reshoots ever, the film’s entire tone and style changed in the script’s origins. In a new interview with Anthony and Joe Russo’s Pizza Film School podcast, he explains what happened to the noted Marvel directors.
Snyder tells the podcast, “What happened with Justice League because we had a very… the original script was much darker and weirder, and then Batman Vs. Superman came out, and the studio was like, ‘It’s not funny enough; people want funnier movies, and they want funny stuff in it.’
One of the issues faced by these changes comes from Snyder feeling like he and co-writer Chris Terrio didn’t have the humor of other writers: “So we had done the changes for the studio, and I’ll be frank, Chris [Terrio] and I are not the funniest guys in the world, we’re not like awesome joke writers – I’m just 100% honest about that [laughs] – and we had Ezra, and he’s pretty funny, that was kind of his role, to be the Flash, and be young, and be a little irreverent and in awe of Batman and Superman. He did a great job, and that part was great, but I do think the process – and it’s classic studio Hollywood process – and in their defense, they can only react to what they react to.”
He adds to this story, explaining that Zack Snyder’s Justice League was his lighter, less grim version, saying: “We did go back and did a… lightened the movie overall. I would say my cut of Justice League is a sort of in-between… I always preserved some of the more intense stuff that I shot anyway; I thought they would, in retrospect, maybe want anyhow – making sure, of course, I got what was on the page – but we had this other script.”
Snyder will next be seen on Netflix, releasing Part 1 of his space-opera epic Rebel Moon, due out this holiday season. The cast includes Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman, Alfonso Herrera, Ed Skrein, Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee, Rhian Rees, Jena Malone, E. Duffy, Charlotte Maggi, Sky Yang, and Staz Nair.
Rebel Moon Part 1 hits Netflix on December 22nd, 2023.
