Zack Snyder Gives Profane Response To Fans Upset By Batman Killing In Batman V Superman
Zack Snyder has some choice words for those who disagreed with his depiction of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
During a Q&A session after a showing of Batman v Superman "Ultimate Edition," Snyder, who directed both Batman v Superman and its predecessor Man of Steel, addressed the fact that some fans are upset he turned Ben Affleck's iteration of Batman into a stone-cold killer — a grim continuation of the moment Henry Cavill's Superman got all snap-happy in Man of Steel.
In the beloved DC Comics lore, the Caped Crusader isn't a man who murders and mutilates to make a point; he's a good guy with a "no-kill" rule. In Snyder's Batman v Superman, he throws that policy out the window and gets his hands dirty — and Snyder doesn't see any issue with that. His impassioned response to people outraged that Batman committed murder in Batman v Superman was captured on video and later posted to Reddit.
"Someone says to me like, 'Oh! Batman killed a guy!' I'm like, 'F***, really?' I'm like, 'Wake the f*** up!' That's what I'm saying about once you've lost your virginity to this f****** movie and then you come and say to me something about like, 'Oh, my superhero wouldn't do that,' I'm like, 'Are you serious? I'm like down the f****** road on that.' You know what I mean?"
Snyder then expressed his viewpoint that Batman v Superman, his vision of the two famous superheroes, is a subversion of the norm as well as an analysis of the characters and the aspects of their personalities that have made them so respected — a takedown and build-up, if you will. He stated that he feels anyone who holds Batman or Superman to a high standard or values the characteristics that they're known for is naïve, misguided, and living an unrealistic life.
"It's a cool point of view to be like, 'My heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn't lie to America. My heroes didn't embezzle money. My heroes didn't commit any atrocities.' I'm like, 'That's cool, but you're living in a f****** dream world.' The cool thing is like mythologically speaking, I'm 100 percent fine — and by the way I love more than anything Superman and Batman — but in the same way that Alan Moore was fed up with the f****** like, 'Okay no, they do this,' clearly this is a response," said Snyder, referencing Watchmen comics creator Alan Moore, who crafted a gritty world of vigilantes who do break the rules. "Watchmen talks about comic books in the same way that this movie talks about comic book movies, but it talked about comic books at their most — they were broken, so he was just addressing that. The thing with comic book movies is — and you know I'm a fan, I go and see them, I love 'em..."
The video cuts off before Snyder finishes his thought, but the takeaway is clear: he stands by his dark approach to superheroes, and drastically deviating from source material doesn't keep him up at night.
While we're all for fresh takes on classic properties and we can get down with grim and gravelly interpretations of comic book characters and storylines, not everything has to be as bleak as the real world. That's one of the reasons why fiction exists — it serves as an escape from reality. Sure, if superheroes really existed, the battles they get tangled up in would undoubtedly result in gnarly, near-death injuries, and the "no-kill" policy Batman abides by in the comics might get dropped if he were a real guy and not a made-up vigilante. But why apply to our media the same coat of paint that covers our everyday lives? Part of what makes Batman so enduring is that he is a role model — he's different than the bad guys he busts, he holds himself to a higher moral standard. And if realism is Snyder's concern here, why zero in on whether or not he would lie, cheat, steal, and kill instead of focusing on — oh, we don't know — addressing how unrealistic it is that a billionaire orphan flies around a city wearing a bat suit and catching criminals?
Love him or hate him, Snyder's version of Batman will remain a part of the character's cinematic canon for all time. To those in the former camp, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman exist in countless different physical and digital forms for your re-watching pleasure. To those in the latter, find comfort in the fact that the next movie to feature the Caped Crusader, The Batman, is directed by a totally different filmmaker (Matt Reeves) and will star someone other than Affleck.