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Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder goes on profane rant about why his Batman kills. Watch video
Director Zack Snyder has gone on an expletive-filled rant in defence of his decision to show Batman as a murderer in his DC films. “Wake the f**k up,” he told fans.
Director Zack Snyder has successfully managed to stay out of the limelight post the release of Justice League, but he has now addressed some of the more controversial aspects of his tenure in charge of the DC Extended Universe.
In a recent Q&A session held after a screening of his 2009 superhero film Watchmen, Snyder offered not so much a defence of his decision to show Batman as a murderer in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but a ruthless, profanity laden takedown of his critics.
He said, “Someone says to me: Batman killed a guy. I’m like, ‘F**k, really? Wake the f**k up.’” Video of the rant is available on Reddit.
Making a reference to Watchmen, Snyder continued, “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.”
Comparing Watchmen the film to Watchmen the graphic novel, he said, “I love more than anything Superman and Batman, but in the same way that Alan Moore was fed up with the f**king, ‘okay, no: [super heroes] do this’... Watchmen talked about comic books in the same way that this movie talks about comic book movies.”
Fans reacted to Snyder’s comments negatively, and made jokes about the intensity of his arguments. See reactions here:
Snyder is known for his dark deconstructions of popular American superheroes such as Batman and Superman. His take on the characters was met with harsh criticism from both fans and critics, and was rumoured to be the reason why he quit the DCEU ahead of the release of Justice League, although the official reason given was different.
Due to the negative reception to BvS, Justice League - which began shooting less than a month later - was always under constant scrutiny. Snyder admitted in the same interview that because of the last-minute changes, his script for the film was thrown out. “So the original Justice League script, we didn’t even shoot. The really scary version. Because we were really nervous after the response (to BvS),” he said.
Snyder was replaced by Avengers director Joss Whedon, who helmed extensive reshoots and post-production. Snyder has often implied that he hasn’t seen the theatrical Justice League.
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