Zack Snyder’s Scrapped MAN OF STEEL 2 Would Have Brought Brainiac into the Fight
The DC Universe is charging ahead with a fresh slate of films, but for a lot of fans, there’s still a lingering curiosity about what could have been.
As new projects like Man of Tomorrow take shape, Zack Snyder is looking back at the road not taken and opening up about his abandoned plans for a proper sequel to Man of Steel.
During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast celebrating the tenth anniversary of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snyder shared that a direct follow-up centered solely on Henry Cavill’s Superman was very much in the cards before the studio shifted gears toward the big superhero crossover.
Snyder explained: “We absolutely did. My plan was always to hopefully, once we kind of established this timeline, we could branch off and go do this Brainiac movie that would have a Superman/Brainiac solo concept.”
It’s especially interesting to hear now considering that James Gunn’s upcoming Man of Tomorrow is also set to feature the iconic alien villain. German actor Lars Eidinger has already been cast as Brainiac for that film.
Still, Snyder’s version would have been part of his established DC Extended Universe timeline, and you can imagine it carrying that operatic, high-stakes energy his films leaned into.
For Snyder, though, the larger story he was building never stopped being about Superman. Even when Batman and Wonder Woman entered the picture in Batman v Superman, he saw the narrative as fundamentally Clark Kent’s journey.
“My opinion is in the end the full Justice League saga is a Superman story, regardless of how much Batman plays into it. In the end it's a Superman film. When it’s all said and done Superman is the survivor, he is the savior. Without him there's nothing. It is a Superman-centric universe.”
That perspective reframes the whole “why didn’t we get Man of Steel 2?” conversation. From Snyder’s point of view, Batman v Superman wasn’t a detour. It was a continuation. Superman was still the emotional and thematic core of the universe he was building.
He also touched on how the studio approached the title. Warner Bros. was “very excited about Dawn of Justice” being added to Batman v. Superman, while he didn’t “really need it” attached.
Fast forward to 2022 and there were reports that Man of Steel 2 was back in development, only for those plans to be shelved when Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios. The Snyder era wrapped up, and the franchise pivoted to a new creative direction.
Even so, the Brainiac idea clearly never died at DC. Fans will now get to see Superman clash with the villain on the big screen in Man of Tomorrow, with Lex Luthor reportedly aiding in the fight. The film is currently slated to hit theaters on July 9, 2027.
For longtime fans of the so-called Snyderverse, it’s hard not to wonder what that solo Superman/Brainiac film would have looked like under Snyder’s vision.