How Batman v Superman Set Up Metallo In The DCEU

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pitted the world’s finest duo of DC heroes against each other, but it also set the basis for the arrival of one of Superman’s greatest threats, the cyborg Metallo. Batman v Superman was the second movie to be released in the DCEU, following the origin story of the Man of Steel. It quickly set up the DC Trinity, consisting of Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in a fight to save the world from the maniac mastermind Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and his dreadful creation, Doomsday – the two most dangerous and iconic supervillains in the Superman mythos. Though not as evident, Dawn of Justice also sets up the birth of Metallo.

In the comics, Metallo is a cyborg powered by a heart of green kryptonite and a deep hatred for Superman. There are several variations of his origin story and motivations to fight him, but they all boil down to the destruction of his body and its subsequent cybernetic reconstruction by the scientist Emmet Vale. Along with Metallo’s robotic enhancements, Professor Vale instills in him his own hatred for the Man of Steel since he believes that, as a scientist, he should do whatever is necessary to eliminate a godlike alien from the face of the Earth. Metallo slowly loses the rest of his humanity and becomes a vicious machine capable of manipulating mechanical devices and morphing machinery as extensions of his body.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was already packed with characters and setups for future movies, including Wonder Woman and Justice League. From the photograph of Diana Prince in WWI to the tattered Robin costume in the Batcave to the appearance of a time-traveling Flash trying to communicate with Bruce Wayne, the DCEU expanded a lot in the span of one movie. One of the smaller easter eggs that could easily slip under the radar is the involvement of the scientist Emmet Vale (Ralph Lister) in the creation of Doomsday. In Dawn of Justice, he helps Lex Luthor with the use of the recently-discovered Kryptonite on the corpse of General Zod (Michael Shannon), who was killed by Superman in Man of Steel, to detect the effect the mineral has on a Kryptonian body. His first manipulation of Kryptonite is a clear sign of a future fixation on the element, which he would later use to power Metallo, his own greatest creation.

In fact, Metallo played a much bigger role in earlier drafts of Batman v Superman, written by David S. Goyer (who co-wrote The Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel). Instead of introducing a new character to the DCEU, Metallo’s original identity was supposed to be Wallace Keefe (Scoot McNairy) – the man who lost his legs in the battle of Metropolis and blamed Superman for ruining his life. Some pieces of unused DCEU concept art show what he would look like as Metallo. After all, Keefe had all the reasons to become the supervillain: Superman was partly responsible for his physical disability, he lost his job and his wife as a result, and later got exploited by Lex Luthor to manipulate Bruce Wayne into fighting Superman. In the final version of the movie, he meets his end when Luthor smuggles a bomb to the United States Capitol in his wheelchair in order to sway the public against extraterrestrial entities.

With the negative reception of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and the quick death of Doomsday, the setup for Metallo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice guarantees that at least one emblematic Superman villain can make a strong appearance in the DCEU at some point down the road. While Henry Cavill’s version of Superman remains on hold, his villains could still develop in other movies. That’s a trustworthy strategy, as Birds Of Prey recently demonstrated.