DCEU: OF COURSE Zack Snyder Was Going To Kill Batman
Director hints he wanted to kill off the Dark Knight in Justice League 2.
Not so very long ago, Zack Snyder was basically handed the keys to the DCEU Mansion and told to make the films he wanted to make. The result was a Batman v Superman cross-over event that was nowhere near the run-away success it should have been and part of a Justice League film that was then given to Joss Whedon to unsuccessfully try and untangle. Even before Justice League was in the can, those keys were hastily taken back.
In an alternate universe, though, Snyder was able to make all five of the movies that he planned to make. In that dimension, Snyder's version of Justice League remained true to his vision and the plot-lines that were abandoned were developed all the way through to the end and set up Justice League 2.
We've heard various details already about plans for that movie and Snyder's original vision for the predecessor, but one new detail that has just emerged - though which is not at all surprising - is that Snyder planned to kill off Batman. Having already killed off Superman. And Jimmy Olsen. Poor Jimmy, nobody ever remembers him...
Anyway, artist Ramesh De Silva posted an image of Superman carrying Batman's body on social media with a caption suggesting that that's where we'd have been headed in Snyder's movies with an apparent confirmation from Snyder himself, who replied simply "of course" on Vevo.
Snyder had teased other deaths already, but this is as close to a concrete bit of evidence as we're ever likely to get. Sadly for fans still obsessing over a mythical Snyder Cut and hoping for some sort of Crisis event that brings the universe where there's still a Snyder-led-DCEU crashing into ours, life got in the way and we didn't get to see that movie.
And for anyone not sure whether he'd have the balls to kill off one of Warner Bros' most valuable brands... Of course he would. In the wake of making Watchmen, Snyder was very happily vocal about his disinterest in making conventional superhero movies. More than that, he seemed to suggest an almost fetishistic desire to pull down the pillars that "mainstream" comic book successes were built on. So why wouldn't he follow up a dark Watchmen adaptation by killing off an enduring symbol of hope? You know, like the other enduring symbol of hope he'd ALREADY killed in Batman v Superman...
It's his thing.