Loosely promoting his two “Rebel Moon” Netflix movies, one was released last December and a sequel that’s arriving in April, Zack Snyder recently appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast for a sprawling two-hour conversation. Snyder discussed almost every facet of his career, his DC films, and more, but during the conversation, he also revealed that he’s been discussing the idea of a “300” series, presumably with Netflix, as they are essentially his new home.
“Did you ever think about putting a bunch of gay stuff in there?” Rogan asked ever so eloquently, the topic of homoerotic elements in Spartan warrior life being a sizable element of the conversation earlier in the podcast. And Snyder essentially said yes, revealing that a series had been up for discussion.
READ MORE: Zack Snyder Talks’ Army Of The Dead,’ ‘300 Part III,’ His King Arthur Idea & More [Fourth Wall Podcast]
“It’s Frank’s book; I made what Frank wrote,” Snyder said, explaining why there were no overt homoerotic or homosexual components in the original film but clarified that those elements could be incorporated into a series. “Now, in retrospect—and we’ve been talking about doing a [‘300’] series where I really want to, like, introduce those concepts a lot more because I think it’s important. If we go forward and do more in the ‘300’ universe, I would want to bring that [homoerotic] part in, which I think people—I think it just shakes it up. Like, ‘what?’ Right when you thought you knew like how to feel [about the series], I’m going to make you feel another way.”
Much earlier in the conversation, Snyder and Rogan discussed the apparently historically accurate homosexual qualities of Spartan warrior life at length, and Rogan told the filmmaker that “300” is one of his all-time favorite films.
“As we go forward, I would love to just kind of stress…Look, ‘300’ in some ways is one of the gayest movies ever made,” Snyder continued. “It is incredibly male-centric, male-obsessed. You really feel very strong male energy from that movie. Maybe that was just my understanding, doing the research and understanding Spartan culture, that that energy was in there. It was important to make sure there was a visceral sexuality to the way the men actually interacted. Regardless of whether you acknowledge it, it’s there.”
Snyder did not specify if Netflix would be the partner for a “300” series should one get made, and Warner Bros. did initially have rights to the project. That said, in December of last year, Snyder said he had reobtained rights to the series, so perhaps this is one of the projects he’s cooking up under his new partnership with the streaming giant. Additionally, he revealed to Rogan that he pitched Netflix his adaptation of “The Fountainhead,” so clearly, they are the first go-to for all his potential new projects. The filmmaker already said he wrote a “final chapter” of the “300” story during the COVID lockdown, so that could be what he could work from if he fashioned it into a series. Watch the conversation below.