Summary

Zack Snyder believes Batman killing is necessary for relevance, and says he drew inspiration from
The Dark Knight Returns
.
Snyder’s DC SnyderVerse proved to be hugely divisive among comic book fans.
Frank Miller’s seminal comic showed Batman in a no-win scenario, but does he actually cross that line?

Divisive director Zack Snyder has made some comments about Batman that are unlikely to bring an end to that divisiveness, with the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice filmmaker saying he has no problem with The Dark Knight killing people. Appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience, Snyder admitted that he “tends to get in trouble” with comic book fans as he likes to take “a deconstructivist point of view” and wants “to take [superheroes] apart” because “I care.”

Whether that explanation for wanting Batman to murder people will be enough for DC fans remains to be seen, but Snyder goes further, believing that keeping the character’s ‘no killing’ rule threatens to make the DC icon “irrelevant.”

“People are always like Batman can’t kill, right? So Batman can’t kill is canon. And I’m like, ‘Okay, the first thing I want to do when you say that is I want to see what happens.’ And they go like, ‘Well, don’t put him in a situation where he has to kill someone.’ I’m like, ‘Well that’s just like you’re protecting your god in a weird way, right? You’re making your God irrelevant if he can’t be in that situation. He has to now deal with that. If he does do that what does that mean? What does it tell you? Does he stand up to it? Can he survive that, right, as a god, as your god. Can Batman survive that?”

While forcing Batman into difficult situations is one thing, there are no doubt many who would find it much more interesting for The Dark Knight to find his way out in a manner more befitting of the superhero. Which doesn’t usually involve leaving charred corpses in his wake. Of course, Snyder is not the only director to have Batman kill on the big screen.

Zack Snyder Says He Took Inspiration for Batman Killing From The Dark Knight Returns

Snyder says he took inspiration for forcing Batman to kill from Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns, referencing a scene in which the character is forced to shoot a criminal after they take a child hostage.

“So in Dark Knight Returns there’s a scene and I copied it kind of in Batman v. Superman where he grabs the M60, he busts through the wall, and he grabs the M60 and in the comic book he’s like got this kid, the mutant has this kid with a gun to his head and he’s like, ‘I’ll kill him. I swear I’ll do it.’ And Batman says, “I believe you,’ and shoots him straight in the head. Because it’s a no-win scenario.”

Unfortunately for Snyder, he has seemingly either forgotten the events of The Dark Knight Returns, or simply didn’t understand them, as Batman does not kill the criminal in question. The story later states that Batman has not killed anyone, with the superhero concerned that he could one day cross that line. But, in the pages of The Dark Knight Returns, he does not.

Related Zack Snyder Explains How Netflix’s Rebel Moon Outsold Barbie’s Incredible Box Office The director believes that more people likely watched Rebel Moon on the streamer than Barbie in theaters thanks to their distribution model.

While Snyder is clearly passionate about comic books and movie-making, it is no wonder that so many DC, Batman, and Superman fans took issue with his take on the characters in the SnyderVerse.

The director has now left the world of DC behind and will next helm the sequel to his own franchise-starter, Rebel Moon, with Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, which is scheduled to be released on Netflix on April 19, 2024.