Zack Snyder Spills On Early Plans For Man of Steel And Batfleck

“We did talk about it a little bit”

Even after Zack Snyder has ended his (current) relationship with DC Films, there is still a lot to talk about, echoing all the way back to the beginning of it all. 

During a talk on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz on Wednesday (May 26), The Army of the Dead director revealed some surprising details about what could have been in his DCEU. The first being that Man of Steel could have been set in the universe of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight universe. 

Snyder had this to say:

It was not 100 percent off the table. We did talk about it a little bit.

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Snyder then spoke of how if this were the case, it would have followed canon with a lesser known Batman in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John ‘Robin’ Blake:

Maybe that’s why we didn’t do it…It would have been Joseph. Which could have been cool.

In hindsight, Snyder was happy that the Christian Bale-led trilogy wasn’t involved, especially with how Nolan is protective of his trilogy:

I don’t blame him. I like that his thing doesn’t get muddied by these other touches.

But thats not all that Snyder revealed. When Horowitz asked about those Josh Brolin/Batman rumours and who ultimately would have wore the cape and cowl had Ben Affleck refused, the DCEU godfather gave an identity.

Matthias Schoenaerts…I was talking to him a lot about it. He never got in the suit, but I did do a bunch of mock-ups of him because Ben was on the fence. And I don’t blame him.

Schoenaerts is known for his roles 2018’s Red Sparrow alongside Jennifer Lawrence and 2015’s The Danish Girl with an Oscar-Winning Eddie Redmayne. 

Though Snyder believed Schoenaerts would shape up as a good Caped Crusader, he decided that the 30-something actor wouldn’t have fit a version of Bruce Wayne in his mid 40s. 

Snyder’s latest film, Army of the Dead, is streaming on Netflix now.