During Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman live commentary watch party on Vero, he mentions that he believes a live-action The Dark Knight Returns movie could still be made. The BvS director held a watch party for the 4-year old film on the social platform. While BvS may have been released years back, it’s still a hot discussion topic in the comic book movie world. BvS was a divisive movie when it came out, and placed critics and fans on opposite sides.
Throughout the years, actors from the movie and fans have been pushing for the release of the “Snyder Cut” of Batman v Superman. The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement gained significant traction, with stars Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot joining the call as well. Snyder’s live stream gained a lot of attention due to the insights the director provided on the movie. Throughout the stream, Snyder commented on the Martha scene, Superman casket scene, and even discussed how confusing the Knightmare scene was for Snyder himself.
During the live stream, hosted on Vero, Snyder also discussed the idea of a live-action The Dark Knight Returns movie, and how he believes it can still be made. He stated he doesn’t think Batman v Superman negates a possibility for a The Dark Knight Returns live-action movie and that someone could still make one. Snyder spoke about The Dark Knight Returns because he drew heavy inspiration from the comic book miniseries, written by Frank Miller, for Batman v Superman.
The Dark Knight Returns is widely considered to be one of the greatest Batman comics of all time. It put a grizzled, older Batman front and center, and also famously depicted an epic showdown between Batman and Superman. Snyder borrowed elements from the comic for his movie. Many of the live-action Batman movies have drawn inspiration from the story arc as well, including Tim Burton’s Batman, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
Despite all of these movies drawing inspiration from The Dark Knight Returns, all of these movies have still told unique Batman stories. TDKR was turned into an animated film, but a direct, live-action retelling of the story would be something that hasn’t been done before. It would be interesting to see which director would take the helm for the project, and what elements they borrow from the source material. From what Snyder has said, it does seem unlikely that he would be the one to take on this project.
