Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder has said DC is making the Caped Crusader "irrelevant" if he can't kill.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Snyder said he often finds himself "in trouble" with fans because of his "deconstructivist" point of view, but assured "it's because I care that I want to take him apart".
He uses the example of Batman traditionally choosing not to kill his enemies, which is a concept present in most comics and films and instrumental to his iconic relationship with the Joker.
"Batman can't kill is canon. And I'm like, 'okay, the first thing I wanna do when you say that is I wanna see what happens'. And they go, 'well don't put him in a situation where he has to kill someone'.
"You're protecting your god in a weird way, right? You're making your god irrelevant if he can't be in that situation. He has to now deal with that. If he does do that what does that mean? What does it tell you, does he stand up to it? Does he survive that as a god? As your god, can Batman survive that?"
There aren't any particularly personal murders of Batman's in Batman v Superman, however, where the superhero takes this moment to reflect or consider. Half a dozen deaths come via the Batmobile's machine guns or blatantly driving through people and Batman himself stabs, blows up, and neck breaks a handful of henchman too.
The scenes proved controversial with Batman fans so Snyder has been forced to defend the killing previously. "Someone says to me: Batman killed a guy. I’m like, ‘F**k, really? Wake the f**k up."
He also compared it to his other comic book film Watchmen and its mature story. "Once you've lost your virginity to this f**king movie and then you come and say to me something about like, ‘My superhero wouldn’t do that'. I’m like ‘Are you serious?’ I’m like down the f**king road on that. It’s a cool point of view to be like ‘my heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn't f**king lie to America. My heroes didn't embezzle money from their corporations. My heroes didn't commit any atrocities'. That’s cool. But you’re living in a f**king dream world."
While Snyder once led the DC cinematic universe with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and his four hour version of Justice League, but this franchise has now come to an underwhelming end with The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which all disappointed at the box office.
DC Studios' new co-CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran, will instead lead a new cinematic universe. It kicks off with the Creature Commandos TV show in late 2024 and the David Corenswet-led Superman on July 11, 2025.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/zack-snyder-says-dc-is-making-batman-irrelevant-if-he-cant-kill