Wayne Easter Egg In Man Of Steel Set Up The DCEU’s Batman 3 Years Before Ben Affleck’s First Appearance

A key Easter egg in Man of Steel directly set up the DCEU’s Batman three years before his first appearance. Played by Ben Affleck, Bruce Wayne’s Batman made his DCEU debut in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. However, the seeds for his introduction were laid by director Zack Snyder in 2013 thanks to a brief sequence during the battle between Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod (Michael Shannon).

As seen in the DCEU’s first movie Man of Steel, Superman presents himself to the world in the face of a major Kryptonian threat. With General Zod’s arrival and attempt to terraform Earth into a New Krypton, Superman defends humanity and takes the fight to Zod, resulting in a massively destructive battle throughout the city of Metropolis. However, their battle also takes them into orbit where a brief reference to Bruce Wayne’s Batman was made, serving as some key setup that would be paid off in Snyder’s follow-up DC feature with Dawn of Justice.

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How The Wayne Easter Egg In Man Of Steel Set Up The DCEU’s Batman

The Wayne Satellite Sets Up Dawn of Justice’s Opening Scene

As Superman and Zod fight in orbit, Zod throws a nearby satellite at the Man of Steel before they return to Metropolis. The satellite in question bears the logo of Wayne Enterprises, Bruce Wayne’s company which he runs when he’s not protecting Gotham at night as Batman in the DCEU. Not only was this the first confirmation that Batman existed in the same universe as Man of Steel’s Superman, but the satellite itself would play a major role in Dawn of Justice’s opening scene.

In Dawn of Justice, Bruce Wayne was in Metropolis on the day of Superman and Zod’s battle, and he saw for himself the pieces of his own satellite falling onto the city as the Kryptonians continued to fight. Combined with the rest of the damages and significant loss of life, Bruce Wayne was motivated to see Superman as a major threat, one he tried to kill in Batman v Superman thanks to some critical manipulations from Lex Luthor. However, Batman would eventually see the humanity within Superman, joining forces with the Kryptonian and Wonder Woman to face Luthor’s horrifying creation known as Doomsday.

The DCEU’s Original Batman Plans Explained

Ben Affleck Was Going To So Much More As The Dark Knight

This one Easter egg in Man of Steel helped kickstart what would become an ongoing role for Ben Affleck as Batman, though he was meant to do so much more. Had 2017’s Justice League been more successful, Warner Bros’ plans wouldn’t have changed and Affleck would likely have directed and starred in a new Batman movie along with future appearances in two more Justice League films, as originally intended. However, Warner Bros. elected to deviate from those plans, in part because Affleck had such a challenging experience on the set of Justice League (as did other actors).

Instead, Affleck only had a small appearance in 2023’s The Flash following Justice League and Zack Snyder’s Justice League which was released on HBO Max in 2021, restoring the director’s original vision for the feature. Batman’s visions and nightmares of a dark future involving Darkseid and a corrupted Superman would have come to pass in the future Justice League movies, forcing Bruce to try and set things right. However, it ultimately wasn’t meant to be now that a new and rebooted DCU is in the works, though it’s fun to remember the levels of excitement a simple logo generated back in 2013 with Man of Steel.