There cannot be too many film-makers who have spent quite so long being told that their version of a superhero universe is over, as Zack Snyder has. His Batman is gone, his Superman has been dismantled and the studio that once handed him the keys to DC is now run by James Gunn and Peter Safran, two men whose first order of business was to build something completely different. And yet here he is, determined not to give up, telling anyone who will listen about his proposal to bring the classic Frank Miller graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns to multiplexes.
In an interview with Variety to promote his forthcoming film The Last Photograph, Snyder returned to an idea he has been talking about for years: adapting Miller’s famously grim 1986 vision of an ageing Batman coming out of retirement in a dystopian Gotham. Watchmen came at the beginning of the superhero movie phase, so it would be super fitting to have The Dark Knight Returns come now, at what I would say is possibly – I don’t want to call it the twilight, but – we’re down the road of the superhero movie genre, and I think audiences would understand the why of it.” What’s this, you may ask? Isn’t this the guy who was in charge of the caped crusader and man of steel back when they were played by Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, and didn’t he already spend a significant chunk of Batman v Superman recreating Miller’s seminal comic with the serial numbers only lightly filed off?
It all seems pretty unlikely. For starters, comic book studios rarely make straight-up adaptations of iconic graphic novels – at least outside the animated sphere. Then there’s the small matter of the two existing Batman projects already running concurrently under DC Studios: Robert Pattinson’s grungy doom-laden version, about to embark on a second outing under the auspices of Matt Reeves (The Batman Part II), and a second dark knight who’s due to turn up in the forthcoming The Brave and the Bold, this time with It director Andy Muschietti attached.
Wouldn’t a third caped crusader be taking things too far, even in a genre where multiversal alternates have increasingly become commonplace? Then again, stranger things have happened. Nobody expected Snyder’s four-hour version of Justice League to ever get made, either.
The “release the Snyder cut” campaign remains one of the most bizarre examples of fan power to have emerged. Yes, Snyder’s early DC films, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice did well at the box office, especially given the studio’s later struggles, but the idea that Warner Bros would one day hand Snyder $70m to exhume Justice League, perform emergency franchise surgery on it and release two four-hour versions on TV (one entirely in monochrome) still feels closer to an AI fever dream than reality. Did Snyder really have the huge and dedicated following to justify it?
There may be one glimmer of hope on the horizon for those who long to see a greying Batfleck battle Cavill’s Superman once again. Paramount Skydance’s planned takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, which could yet struggle to get over the line, might signal another shake-up of the Gunn-led DC Studios. There are even murkier corners of the blogosphere that suggest Paramount boss David Ellison could bring Snyder back once Gunn’s contract (allegedly) expires next year.
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