One of the most striking memories of my five times at Comic-Con was undoubtedly in 2013, when a month after the release of Man of Steel, director Zack Snyder took the Hall H stage to thank fans for turning out for the film, and revealed a surprise announcement: a Batman vs. Superman movie. In my five years at Comic-Con, I’ve never seen a crowd so electrified—a group of people behind me were literally crying tears of joy when the logo came on the screen. Today, two years later, Snyder took the Hall H stage with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice already in the can, and offered an extensive preview to the Comic-Con audience that included new footage from the highly anticipated superhero film that is not online.

Batman v Superman kicks off the DC Movie Universe in earnest when it hits theaters next March, and during today’s Comic-Con panel, the cast and Snyder revealed a change in geography for Gotham City and Metropolis, the moment Ben Affleck knew they were making something special, and showed off a brand new trailer.

Panel Highlights

• Snyder described this as a “dream come true” project, praising the cast that he got to work with.

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  How canonical is the central conflict in the film? Snyder answered, “If you wanna talk about the story itself or the particulars of this movie, it’s definitely based on just ideas we had in a room based on what we thought would be cool to see. If you wanna talk about Batman vs Superman, it’s a thing that happens a lot in the comics.” Snyder went on to namedrop The Dark Knight Returns, admitting he homages the book a lot in the movie, “but the story itself is not in the movie.”
• Snyder spoke about working with screenwriter Chris Terrio (but didn’t mention David S. Goyer, who wrote the initial draft), noting “He and I just talked about how do you make this make sense? We had done stuff in Man of Steel that allowed us to make that part of the movie. He noted that the story also allows them to move toward opening up the realm to other superheroes.
• The geography of the main cities has been altered for the film, Snyder revealed. “The big rule that we broke was we put Gotham and Metropolis right next to each other… But it made sense to us and worked for our story that they were kind of sister cities across a big bay. It’s like Oakland and San Francisco.”
• When asked about his iteration of Alfred, Jeremy Irons said he admired the work of Michael Caine but added, “He’s a little different, my Alfred, so I think there are surprises in store.”
• Gal Gadot on her take on Wonder Woman: “I feel like I have been given a huge opportunity to show the strong and beautiful side of a woman. She has the strength of a superhero but at the same time is very loving.”

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  Jesse Eisenberg spoke briefly about his Lex Luthor: “There’s always a bit of a campy element to the character but I think there’s a real emotional roundedness to this version of it.” He stressed that the script gives every character in the movie a strong emotional core.
• “If I thought too hard about the actors who played this part before I couldn’t take the job,” said Affleck. The actor admitted he was hesitant to take on the role at first, but responded positively to Snyder’s pitch as the filmmaker thought he was perfect for the role.
• Affleck relayed a story about shopping for a Batman costume for his son when he ran into Christian Bale. When Affleck asked Bale if he had any tips, the actor said, “Make sure you can piss in that suit!” Cavill added that for Batman v Superman, they put a zipper in his suit.
• Holly Hunter’s part is an original character written for the film, and judging by the trailer, she appears to be the political antagonist to Superman, and she finds an ally in Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor.
• Snyder revealed that Affleck’s “mech suit” is “not really enhancing his strength,” but is more for protection from Superman.

Footage

They showed off the new trailer, which delves much deeper into the story, reveals Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, and digs into Lex Luthor’s role in the film. The main takeaway, though, is the haunting flashback during which we see Affleck’s Bruce Wayne running toward the destruction in Metropolis caused by the fight between Superman and General Zod. It’s a striking image that gives a strong emotional core to Wayne’s beef with Superman other than just, “I don’t trust this guy.” It also reveals that the film will play with the timeline a bit.

Additionally, we got our first brief look at Wonder Woman in action (she looks sufficiently badass), as well as more footage of Batman and Superman going toe to toe. They’re battling in the sky, Batman’s using his batarang, and then the final image shows Superman literally pulling the doors off of the Batmobile.

Audience Q&A

• Did working through their characters change how they look at their own lives now? Cavill said, “I don’t know, it’s kind of tough for me to say. I play a god.” Affleck revealed that Gotham City is where “more downtrodden people live” and talked about the ideas of the dichotomy between Gotham and Metropolis and how people interact, adding that these smart ideas “from Chris and Zack” made him even more proud to be part of the film.
• What moment did they realize the craziness of making the movie? Affleck talked about reading the script and preparing for a scene, but when he got on set Snyder put the camera on a crane and covered everybody’s dialogue in a wonderful way, to which Affleck responded, “Fuck I would never do that!”