10 Things You Only Notice Rewatching Snyder's DCEU Movies
6. Who Watches The Watchmen?
Before his three DCEU superhero movies, Zack Snyder had previously directed another superhero flick in Watchmen. He’d also directed the ‘kinda sorta’ superhero film Sucker Punch, though he probably wants to keep that quiet.
Watchmen though, while not universally acclaimed, is a pretty good adaption of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, and he’s right to be proud of it. ‘Who watches the Watchmen?’ is one of the most famous quotes from the film and the novel, underscoring the dangers of unrestricted authority and how absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
In Latin, the phrase is ‘quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’, which we can see daubed on the wall in Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice. It’s only noticeable for a second or so, and is clearly a bit of a complicated Easter egg placed there by Snyder as a nod to his earlier career rather than any foreshadowing.
Don’t expect Doctor Manhattan to show up in the DCEU, basically.
Still, as much as it’s a blink and you’ll miss it nod, there are some thematic parallels between Superman and the Watchmen when it comes to unregulated power.