Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder has surfaced on a new episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, and with it comes another explanation from the 58-year-old filmmaker as to why he made Batman—contrary to his usual depictions, including those in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Batman Trilogy—kill in his films. Snyder, who is readying Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver for release on Netflix next month, suggested that this is a test that the character should be put through to make him more meaningful/interesting; otherwise, he’s “irrelevant,” while Rogan agreed with Snyder, calling the no-kill rule “ridiculous.”
Snyder explained:
- “…Batman can’t kill is canon. …okay, the first thing I wanna do when you say that is I wanna see what happens. …they go, ‘well don’t put him in a situation where he has to kill someone’.”
- “I’m like…well, you’re protecting your god in a weird way. 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 it mean? What does it tell you? Does he stand up to it? Can he stand up to that…as a god, as your god?”
Snyder defending his choices back in 2019:
- “Someone says to me: Batman killed a guy. I’m like, ‘—-, really? Wake the —- up.”
- “Once you’ve lost your virginity to this —-ing 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 —-ing road on that. It’s a cool point of view to be like ‘my heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn’t —-ing 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 —-ing dream world.”
Snyder’s Batman, played by Ben Affleck, killing people:
The full show:
Zack Snyder is a filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter known for films like “Justice League,” “300,” and “Army of the Dead.” His latest film, “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” is now available on Netflix. Catch the sequel, “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver,” on Netflix April 19, 2024.