Zack Snyder Gets Candid About Losing the DCEU, JUSTICE LEAGUE, James Gunn’s SUPERMAN, and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

Zack Snyder’s history with DC is complicated, to put it mildly. The filmmaker helped shape Warner Bros.’ original DCEU, saw his plans fall apart under incredibly painful circumstances, eventually returned to complete his version of Justice League, and then watched the entire franchise get rebooted under new leadership.

Now, Zack Snyder is opening up about that period, including losing control of the DC universe he helped build, the Joss Whedon version of Justice League, his thoughts on James Gunn’s DCU, and the unexpected advice Gunn asked him for while making Superman.

Speaking with Variety, Snyder reflected on what was happening when he stepped away from Justice League following the tragic death of his daughter, Autumn. At the time, what was happening with the movie simply couldn’t compete with what his family was going through.

"The circumstances around it were so particular. It just kind of crawled over me. What was happening with me and my family was so intense."

After Snyder left the project, Joss Whedon took over and extensively reworked the film through rewrites and reshoots. Snyder says he wasn’t really following what Warner Bros. was doing with the movie at the time.

"It was so loud — that part was so loud — that, in retrospect, asking, 'How’s the movie going?' And they go, 'Oh, it’s fine! They’re doing some reshoots.' And I go, 'Oh, OK. [frick] it.'

“So, Debbie went and watched the Joss [Whedon] version of the movie, and to have her come back to me and say, 'You can never see that movie,' and to realize then that it was 60 pages of rewrites that they did for it… I’ve never seen the movie, so I don’t know."

Snyder still hasn’t watched Whedon’s theatrical cut of Justice League. His wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, saw it and decided one viewing in the family was more than enough.

Snyder eventually got the opportunity to finish his original vision with Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which made the massive differences between his movie and the 2017 theatrical release pretty clear.

Looking back at his larger DC plans, Snyder says Warner Bros. repeatedly pushed back against his vision and wanted greater control over the franchise.

He understands why the studio wanted that control, but he also believes some executives viewed his departure as an opportunity to reclaim the movie, with the attitude being: “This thing that happened to Zack is a window for us to take the movie back now.”

Years later, Snyder says he had an interesting encounter with a former Warner Bros. executive.

"But there was this catharsis of, I met with this executive at Warner Bros. who’s long gone since — I won’t say who it was — and he said to me, 'You know, Zack, I’ve got to tell you one thing: You were right about everything.' And I was like, 'That’s kind of you.' And he goes, 'We were fighting you, and in the end you were right.'”

DC has since moved into a completely different era under DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, but Snyder hasn’t jumped into their new universe as a viewer just yet. He revealed that he hasn’t watched Superman or Supergirl because his connection to DC remains too personal.

"I haven’t seen the movies. It’s a little bit too personal for me. Too soon, I guess you could say. I do like James [Gunn]. And I do have an appreciation for his [vision]."

Despite not watching Gunn’s Superman, Snyder actually had a small consulting role before the film arrived. Gunn contacted him with a very important Superman question: What about the trunks?

Snyder, who ditched the classic red trunks for Henry Cavill’s Superman costume in Man of Steel, had some thoughts. A lot of thoughts.

"He asked me a question about the underwear. You know, I can’t even remember now, but I think it was about the underwear. Sorry, but I’m going to do a little diatribe.

“Watchmen is a superhero deconstruction film — neuroses, sexual impotence around their costumes, the fetishism, everything. You can’t undo that. I think about everything that way.

“So, the underwear on the outside of the superhero costume comes from Victorian strongmen. The Victorians were so prudish that they’d wear flesh-colored leotards and then put the underwear over it. That’s how it started.

“It was really just a reflection of the Victorians not wanting to show any real skin due to their prudish fear of nakedness. So to me, that’s such a dinosaur. We don’t feel that way anymore. We live in an era where we’re OK without putting the underwear on.

“But maybe we’re not OK! Maybe the message is that you put the underwear back on Superman because we haven’t moved on from our Victorian prudishness. But I thought we had!"

Gunn clearly landed on the other side of that debate. David Corenswet’s Superman proudly rocks the classic trunks.

While Snyder doesn’t appear to be preparing a return to the main DC Universe, there is one DC Comics project that could tempt him back: The Dark Knight Returns.

Frank Miller’s legendary Batman story has influenced Snyder’s work before, particularly Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but Snyder wants to make a full adaptation. For him, The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen represent two essential bookends in the evolution of superhero comics.

"The reason why it’s The Dark Knight Returns, if anyone would ever let me do it outside of the DC Universe since it’s a novel that just happens to have superheroes in it, is if I could do Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, those two books next to each other, to me, represent the complete cycle of the superhero comic book medium.

“You can do no more than those two books. 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.

“Let’s not forget: The Dark Knight Returns was written for a comic book audience that was very exhausted by comic books in the same way that Watchmen was, so having that movie written now for people who are exhausted by comic book movies would be a good time."

It’s easy to understand why Snyder remains interested in that particular story. A filmmaker with a taste for darker, operatic superhero material adapting an aging Batman story about superhero fatigue certainly fits.

Whether DC Studios would ever actually hand Snyder the keys to The Dark Knight Returns is another question. Snyder and Gunn have remained in contact since the DCEU reboot into the DCU was announced, and Gunn reaching out about Superman’s costume shows that their relationship isn’t defined by some imaginary rivalry between competing DC camps.

A full Snyder return still seems unlikely, especially with Gunn and Safran building their own DC Universe. The Elseworlds banner, however, gives DC Studios room to make projects outside its primary continuity.

If Snyder ever did get another shot at a DC movie, The Dark Knight Returns feels like the one project capable of bringing him back.

For now, Snyder appears content to leave Gunn to his Superman trunks while keeping one eye on an older, meaner Batman.