Director Zack Snyder says he would love to make a movie based on The Dark Knight Returns. Batman is one of DC’s most iconic superheroes. Batman’s origin story starts when he’s a young boy, and watches as his parents are murdered in an alleyway. The traumatic experience deeply affects Bruce, who eventually takes up the mantle of Batman to keep Gotham safe. Ben Affleck played Batman in the DC Extended Universe, and he’s returning for reshoots in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Batman has had many incredible comic book stories. However, The Dark Knight Returns is arguably one of the hero’s most memorable. The four-issue miniseries centers around a much older, already retired Bruce Wayne. That being said, Bruce decides to return to fighting crime, despite pushback from both Gotham police and the U.S. government. Bruce stages his own death at the end of the series, and The Dark Knight Returns concludes with the Bat making preparations to continue to protect his city. The miniseries also features many familiar Batman characters, including James Gordon, Two-Face, the Joker, and Selina Kyle.
Snyder stopped by The Nerd Queens’ League of Mayhem stream. There, he revealed that he would be interested in making a film based on The Dark Knight Returns. He says that he’s “obsessed” with the miniseries, and that it’s his dream to eventually turn the story into a film. You can check out Snyder’s full statement on the subject below:
“I saw a tweet recently like ‘Snyder needs to stop reading Dark Knight Returns, he needs to read another Batman comic.’ I almost tweeted back. I’m sure Jay [Oliva] replied like ‘there aren’t any others!’ I’m so obsessed with that comic. I’ve always thought that maybe one day down the road as a one-off, just as a crusty old Batman, we’d just do it. It’s a dream I have.”
This isn’t the first time that Snyder has expressed interest in The Dark Knight Returns. In fact, the director stated back in March that he felt a movie could be made out of the miniseries. More specifically, Snyder even mentioned that The Dark Knight Returns helped inspire certain elements of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. To that end, it’s clear that The Dark Knight Returns has had a significant impact on Snyder’s work, even if he hasn’t had a chance to develop it into a movie of his own yet.
As of right now, Snyder has his hands full with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The project is set to debut on HBO Max next year, and is currently undergoing reshoots. Yet while Snyder is clearly busy, it would still be incredibly cool to see how the director puts his own twist on the beloved Batman story. That being said, it doesn’t look like fans will get a Snyder film adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns for quite some time. Still, they can take comfort in knowing that this is one passion project which remains on Snyder’s radar.
