As with nearly every highly anticipated movie these days, Man of Steel fell victim to plenty of nitpicking. Some of it was warranted, while some of it got a little too intense. While Superman’s decision to kill was certainly controversial, many also took issue with the level of collateral damage that Superman’s final battle with General Zod elicited. Some argued that Superman should’ve known better, while others maintained that this was the young superhero’s first battle in a major metropolitan area, and he thus was inexperienced.

Ahead of next week’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic-Con panel, where fans are sure to get an extended sneak preview at the Man of Steel follow-up, someone else has come forward defending the third act set piece of the 2011 Superman reboot: director Zack Snyder.

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Image via Warner Bros.

Speaking with EW as part of the magazine’s extensive Comic-Con preview, Snyder says he wasn’t anticipating that kind of pushback:

“I was surprised because that’s the thesis of Superman for me, that you can’t just have superheroes knock around and have there be no consequences.”

Indeed, the filmmaker maintains that the plan was always to address that destruction in the follow-up film, and Ben Affleck said this was one of the aspects of Batman v Superman that attracted him to the project, adding that the Man of Steel finale has personal repercussions for Bruce Wayne:


“One of the things I liked was Zack’s idea of showing accountability and the consequences of violence and seeing that there are real people in those buildings. And in fact, one of those buildings was Bruce Wayne’s building so he knew people who died in that Black Zero event.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

As we saw in the first Batman v Superman teaser trailer, the crux of the titular conflict appears to be Batman’s wariness of Superman’s entire existence. Seeing an alien wield that kind of immense power in Metropolis gets Batman thinking long-term, and he sees no reason why Superman won’t lord his power over the people as some sort of superpowered ruthless dictator.

But back to the destruction in Man of Steel, Snyder addressed how his film's third act battle differs to those portrayed in other superhero movies in a not-so-thinly-veiled dig at Marvel:

“There are other superhero movies where they joke about how basically no one’s getting hur. That’s not us. What is that message? That’s it’s okay that there’s this massive destruction with zero consequence for anyone? That’s what Watchmen was about in a lot of ways too. There was a scene, that scene where Dan and Laurie get mugged. They beat up the criminals. I was like the first guy, I want to show his arm get broken. I want a compound fracture. I don’t want it to be clean. I want you to go, ‘Oh my God, I guess you’re right. If you just beat up a guy in an alley he’s not going to just be lying on the ground. It’s going to be messy.”


Batman isn’t the only other major DC Comics character making its “DC Movie Universe” debut in Batman v Superman. The film also introduces Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, and Snyder tells EW that the character is integral to this film and beyond:

“She plays a super-important part. In a lot of ways, she’s the gateway drug to 
the rest of the 
Justice League.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

Snyder is already attached to direct Justice League Part One (set for release in 2017) and Justice League Part Two (set for release in 2019), the first of which is expected to begin filming next year (EW confirms Chris Terrio's script for Part One is complete), and in even more comments to EW, Snyder reflected on the villain search for the Man of Steel sequel—before it was a Batman v Superman movie—and teased appearances to come:

"I remember talking about 'What's the next villain? 'We can't do another alien invasion.' Brainiac was definitely down the road. Metallo, I think, was going to be the main bad guy of this movie."

Finally they settled on bringing Batman into the fold, with Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) also in the mix as the force that likely brings Batman and Superman together, ultimately. We expect to learn much more about Batman v Superman and the future of Warner Bros.’ DC Movie Universe at next Saturday’s Comic-Con panel, o be sure to check back on Collider at that time for all the details.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens in theaters on March 25, 2016. For more on the film, click here or peruse the links below.


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