SDCC 2013: Zack Snyder Announces SUPERMAN/BATMAN Followup to MAN OF STEEL, FLASH and JUSTICE LEAGUE Films May Follow

batman-costumeBoth the LA Times and Hollywood Reporter suggest that Warner Bros. is poised to announce a 2015 live action Superman/Batman or World’s Finest followup to this year’s Man of Steel. Star Henry Cavill and the writing/directing team of David S. Goyer and Zack Snyder are all likely to return, while Christian Bale will most likely tag in a new actor for the Batman role. Whether that’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s spelunking surrogate from The Dark Knight Rises or a whole new iteration of the character, we’ll have to wait and see.

The Hollywood Reporter further posits that Flash and Justice League feature films may follow in 2016 and 2017.

More as the story develops.

UPDATE: Yep. That’s what’s happening. We don’t have an official title for this, but the Superman/Batman movie will serve as Snyder’s followup to Man of Steel. They even showed a hybrid Superman/Batman logo up on the screen in Hall H. Apparently they’ll be taking notes from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, though Snyder stresses this will not be an adaptation of that work. We take that to mean this won’t so much be a buddy comedy. We’re thinking rivalry. Maybe a friendly rivalry in time for that Justice League movie?

Gotham City? Totally f#@%ed.

 


Comments

  1. A Superman/Batman movie would be a better jumping point for a Justice League movie than Man of Steel alone.

    • Agreed, it allows for expanding the universe without relying on less well known characters. Plus, then once you do Justice League you’ll have at least one established relationship between heroes already . . .

  2. Personally, I think that they should let Nolan’s trilogy stand on its own, and build up a new Bruce/Batman again . . .

    All intriguing, looking forward to hearing more . . .

    • That’s what they are doing. Bale doesn’t want to be Batman again, so DC has to reboot the franchise.

    • Well, DC could have gone with Levitt’s character assuming the mantel, but, personally, I would rather leave those exploits to my imagination. Nolan wanted his characters to have an ending, so let’s respect that.

  3. Like all anouncements of this kind, I’ll believe it when I see it. But I gotta admit that even the possibility gives me goosebumps.

    Personally, I have no interest in seeing a JGL Batman. Bruce Wayne is Batman, and deserves (nay, demands) the opportunity to usher in a new movie universe along with the rest of them. I love the Nolan films as much as the next fanboy, but I’d rather just see a new actor under the cowl with the promise of a new approach to the character.

    • Can we get a John Hamm Bruce Wayne now!?

    • Jon Hamm*

    • That’s an idea I can certainly get behind, but Hamm’s not getting any younger. I’m open to other possibilities as long as it’s not Armie Hammer.

    • Okay this is a crazy weekend – yet again, I am in complete agreement with WheelHands. lol

      I also want Batman to be Bruce Wayne… and I’m pretty sure the studio knows they have to get an actor who’d be willing to sign on as Batman for 6-8 years of films, so it ain’t gonna be CBale.
      Meanwhile: yay!!!! This new blueprint for expanding the DC film universe is much better (and more realistic) than the previous plan.

      P.S. Summer of 2015 is going to be the biggest effing season of all time for event films:
      SUPERMAN/BATMAN
      AVENGERS 2
      STAR WARS EPISODE VII
      AVATAR 2

    • I’m really hope they go for John Hamm, last thing I want is a teenage looking Bruce Wayne. He should be old middle aged and grizzled, that would also be a good counter to Cavills Clark Kent since… well I’m by no means gay but damn that dude is beautiful lol.

    • I Superman is 33, Batman should be around 40 in my opinion. Especially considering Clark doesn’t age as fast. Hamm can pass for 40 easily and should be able to for a few more years.

      Considering RDJ was 42 when he did his first Tony Stark, I think we could get a few good Hamm/Bruce movies in before he is past his prime.

  4. Lol the nipple suit made me laugh!

  5. I suggest that when this movie comes out, the Asylum pairs Brandon Routh and Val Kilmer for their direct-to-DVD competitor film.

  6. Looks like Henry Cavill got his wish (he didn’t think it was a good idea for WB to just “jump” in a JL flim). Wouldn’t a Superman/Batman and World’s Finest movie be pretty much the same thing? Both would feature Bats and Supes teaming up to save the world.

    • Except there’s no brand recognition with the name “World’s Finest” compared to “Batman/Superman”. If they are going to call these movies by the Super heroes’ other names then… Hmm, they can’t use Dark Knight, as it is entwined with the Nolan films.

      Caped Crusader/Man of Steel?

    • I would argue that “World’s Finest” is more of a brand than “Superman/Batman”. How long did the “World’s Finest” comic run? 15-25 years? How long did “Superman/Batman” run the first time? 6-8 years? See what I mean? I mean “Superman/Batman” works just for simplicity and all that for average movie goers.

      I’ve never liked Batman being called “Caped Crusader”. I mean there’s tons of heroes that run around with capes and fight crime, why does he stand out? Cause he’s Batman, I know I know. How about “Man of Steel/ Dark Detective”? Nah, I’m fine with “Superman/Batman”. My original point was calling it either WF or S/B it’s still the same content wise.

  7. Dammit… Snyder, Goyer, and possibly Nolan again. I think I’ll sit this one out, especially if they cast Bale or Levitt as Batman.

    • They won’t, I gurantee it.

    • Yeah, Bale said he is done with the character and Batman, as far as I am concerned, has to be Bruce Wayne, so I to think that we will see a new take on Batman, which I am perfectly fine with. I loved the Nolan films, but wanted to see some of the more far fetched villains that his more realistic take on Batman was just not going to provide.

    • Bale is out, he’s said as much. They won’t do Levitt because they want to use Bruce Wayne, not some guy named Robin.

  8. They just announced it. Superman/Batman is happening!

    • That looks A LOT like Miller’s Bat symbol. Interesting…

      Thank god this isn’t going to follow Nolan’s movies. And I really hope that the Superman half is much better. The last one didn’t sit well with me at all…

  9. I can not wait. It sucks that it has taken this long. These two iconic characters should have shared the big screen together a long time ago. As far as a Flash movie, I have wanted to see one since the short TV series left the air and Justice League could not possibly fail, even if it is half as good as the Avengers was.

  10. Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

    Gotham is doomed.

    • Gothamites better check that “act of God” includes sun gods in their Office and Home insurance policies.

    • – Clark: “Well Metropolis is being rebuilt, I’ll head across the Delaware Bay and straight into Gotham! They’ll love me over there!”
      – Bruce: “Like hell you will!”
      – Clark: “What…? I learned my lesson, honest. I won’t kill any one ever again and I will do my utmost to protect the city and civilians.
      – Bruce: “Ok… We’ll team up this one time…”

      *30 minutes later*

      – Bruce: “You Maniac! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
      – Clark: “Ooops… I guess I don’t really know of any other way of dealing with super villains than decimating my entire surroundings, causing billions of dollars in property damages and slaying millions…”

      – Random Narrator Voice: Who else but Superman!?
      – Random Singers: He’s Superman, Superman / You never really know what / He’s gonna do next / He’s Superman, Superman
      – Superman: On my world, the “S” stands for hope! ;D

    • @Scarlet-Batman Hahaha, you just made my day!

    • Everyone just blames Superman for the giant death machine that’s floating in the middle of the city. Racism!

    • @Scaret-Batman That’s hilarious.

  11. If they go the Frank Miller, slightly deranged Batman that would be really interesting. You can’t go full crazytown like Miller has done, but to see a off-kilter Dark Knight on screen could be nothing but entertainment.

    I’m excited for this because this should have been the most obvious thing to do decades ago. (Or at least once Tim Burton’s Batman came around) Whether or not Synder/Goyer can make it a good movie and not just a slugfest like MAN OF STEEL is another story.

    • If they went the Batgod route that Morrison does that would be cool. Super brilliant man but still just a man.

    • Nothing about Morrison’s version is “just a man”. More like super-focused hyper-Buddist crime-fighter. Or whatever description Morrison gave in “Supergods”.

  12. Snyder/Goyer returning or: How to make me lose interest in two seconds or less.

  13. I look forward to Superman blowing up half of Gotham. I also hope that Snyder and Goyer figure out how you can have Batman and Superman snap a guy’s neck at the same time.

  14. I really enjoyed MAN OF STEEL and can’t wait to see this team bring Batman into the newly created movie universe! Exciting times ahead!

  15. I LOVE THIS! Cannot wait! Hope they release an official title for it soon, together with a high res pic of the logo and maybe a Batman actor!
    Oh and by the way, those “Man of Steel had too much destruction” jokes and arguments are getting old fast. You guys ever read a modern Superman comic, or what? Shit gets destroyed. I am happy about the fact that the movie didn’t shy away from that. It was epic and they had enough scenes of Superman saving people(oil rig, school bus, helicopter crash), so there really is no problem.

    • +1. You beat me to this post.

    • I think that’s why I always preferred batman to superman story lines. Don’t get me wrong, I can dig superman and like MoS ok, it’s just that the city destroying thing interests me less than the ethically challenged, psychologically damaged world of the Bat.

    • Almost all of the scenes where Superman saved somebody were towards the beginning and those were the best parts of the movie. The problem with the violence and destruction is that after pretty much the first fight with Zod (when he was about to go after Ma Kent and Superman tackles him) is that it quickly became monotonous. There’s nothing wrong with the scale of the destruction or even the fact that it’s really violent, It’s just that after all of the powers are established, they just hit each other again and again until one of them falls down while anonymous gray buildings fall on anonymous gray people. For example, what is the name of the girl who was with Perry White who got trapped under the building? Does it matter? Or is it just to show everyone this is really serious?

      I actually thought back to “Man of Steel” while watching “Pacific Rim.” “Pacific Rim” had colorful monster battles that leveled San Francisco, Tokyo, Sydney, and Hong Kong and yet still managed to be fun. Each battle had a purpose, never overstayed it’s welcome, and had clearly recognizable “beats” (especially the two kaiju battles in Hong Kong, which were fantastic). Even now I could probably give you a play by play of each Kaiju-Jaeger match, whereas pretty much all of the Kryptonian battles blur together.

      In the end, there’s really only one thing that actually happens during the climactic battle between Zod and Superman (SNAP!) and it doesn’t even happen until the very end. Before that they’re just throwing each other into buildings and hitting each other a bunch. It looks like a video game and a pretty boring, depressing one at that.

    • I don’t know how you can call the MoS fights monotonous, by your logic every Superman fight ever is mobotanious. And this is the first movie where we see him actually fight!!! Pay attention to the fights, none of them are the same except for the final one. All the others feature different levels of experience between the fighters (Kal, Faora, Ul-Ban). The girl’s name is Jenny. See it on her name tag? How about the 10-12 times Perry or Lois called her Jenny? See’s Jenny Olsen, there was a big to-do about her before the movie came out.

      Superman saves Lois and a few others during the Smallville fight and Metropolis battle. So that’s not all at either end of the movie.

      The reason the Jaeger-Kaiju battles were more fun, is because giant Mechs fighting monsters is supposed to be fun. The MoS fights were meant to be serious. Both of them showed the battles taking down EMPTY buildings and/or places that were evacuated. Not to mention the point of PR, is the Jaeger-Kaiju battles. That’s literally what you watch the movie for, and even why the genre exists. The Kaiju battles may have had a purpose, but they were all the same; protect Hong Kong from the Kaiju. Almost every single one (and yet its never explained why they target Hong Kong. But do you care? NO!!!).

      I enjoyed both movies immensely, so I’ll just chalk up your dissatisfaction of MoS to different tastes but I don’t agree with any of your criticisms.

  16. I just read elsewhere that while they did stress that this was not an adaptation of DK Returns, they introduced the logo by reading a quote from DKR aloud.

    “I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in all your most private moments. I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.”

    It’s one of my favorites, but the last quote I thought they’d announce the movie with.

    Interesting.

    • I smell a DKR throwdown. Which is fine but I hope its only like, half the movie or something. Like the fight between Cap/Iron Man/ Thor in “Avengers”. Cool to see, necessary, but not the whole focus of the film.

    • I hope they bring actual Kryptonite in purely to have Clark give Bruce some in case he has to take him down.

    • Agreed. With Kryptonite usually comes Luthor. And I for one would not mind at all if they went with something based on Loeb’s first arc on Superman/Batman. Both of them versus Luthor is always tons of fun. And we’d get some crazy Luthorsuit action.

    • That is a great quote. But it is too soon for a Batman/Superman battle “based on that quote”. That quote came at the end of a battle after 50 or so years of friendship, betrayal, etc. between Batman & Superman. It would not fit in a movie where they first meet anymore the the Kirk/Spock reactor scene fit in ST Into Darkness. It would not be earned.

      Nevertheles, I like the idea of a World’s Finest movie. I’m just wary.

  17. Great news. Cant wait to see Batman kick Supermans ass.

  18. I vote Robb Stark for the new young Bruce Wayne. (Richard Madden).

  19. Well, I’m excited as many for this one, but please… give us a New Gods movie! I know NG is a property unpopular to the great public, but it has all the elements to be a great movie, its mitologhy is very interesting and come on…. they have Darkseid! DC could just jump from a New Gods movie to a Justice League movie, and the public will already be loving the villain.

  20. So are the Gotham Narrows still utterly destroyed and festering with psychopaths? Hopefully the two can focus their earth-salting city destruction over there.

  21. Um…was the image connect to the link to this story meant to look like the Spider-Man/Mary-Jane kiss?

  22. That’s kinda cool. I would love to see a DC cineamatic universe on film. After that they should adapt something like “Trinity” to introduce WW. I enjoyed when they cameo Aquaman in that storyline plus they have Ras Al Ghul which everyone is familiar with.

  23. i guess the Batman/Superman poster in I Am Legend was correct after all, it had a 2015 date

    http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/01/08/legend_poster.jpg

  24. Avatar photo SteveAreUokay (@StevieAreUokay) says:

    I personally think it’s a little too soon! I, feel they should establish Supes story first before they team Bats and Supes up! Not tryin’ to poop on the hype or anything because I love both of these characters so much! I just feel that it’s being rushed. They’re trying to compete with Marvel and I’ll rather wait for great quality films than a rushed JL movie. But, like everyone else we’ll wait to see what happens!

  25. I’m so drunk I cant start to articulate how happy im about this, also such a smart marketing move by DC

  26. Smart. Take your two most recognizable characters – characters whose last movies were huge. Put them together. And if that creates a soft intro for a JL movie, even better!

  27. Still haven’t seen Man of Steel but will soon.

    Hoping for a great S/B movie and an awesome JLA movie.

    With Flash I’ll be happy if they can pull it off and not make it look too schmaltzy.

  28. Excited for this! Odd that they threw that DKR quote in there for the announcement as the film would be a follow-up to Man of Steel rather than an adaptation of DKR. Anyways it sounds like they’re gonna pull elements from Miller’s story which I’m cool with.

    I’d like to see Joe Manganiello as Batman/Bruce Wayne.

  29. I really hope they pick up some of the feel from the animated “The Batman/Superman Movie: World’s Finest.” There was some nice back-and-forth and competition between Superman and Batman in it. They didn’t initially trust each other at all…

  30. I don’t think it’s gonna be a full Superman/Batman team up film. I think it’s gonna be more of a sequel to Man of Steel and Batman being introduced to the new DCU. Which leads into Flash and then, Justice League. Can’t wait to hear more details about it because all we know at the moment are some very sparse ideas.

    • I had a flash of an idea last night; that this meeting would be like their first meeting in John Bryne’s “Man of Steel” series. Could be cool if they adapt that.

  31. I come back from my holyday trip to Cuba where I bathed in the sun while getting drunk on light-beer to the harsh realities of my first day at work and then BAM, I visit iFanboy like I always do to kill some time and read this news.

    BEST. THING. EVER! 😀