Zack Snyder and comic book movies had a good run. His second feature was 300, a monster hit version of Frank Miller’s take on the Greco-Persian wars. He was the one who pounded Alan Moore’s Watchmen into a movie, and he rebooted both Superman and Batman (and introduced a new Wonder Woman). Then came Justice League, which was such a headache that it took him years to get his version on screens. Now he’s done with the genre — well, sort of.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter (in a bit teased out by Entertainment Weekly), the director of the forthcoming Rebel Moon two-fer — an original sci-fi idea, not based on a comic — doesn’t exactly sound ready for a return to the genre.
“We’ve been on the treadmill — it has not evolved,” Snyder said. “I don’t have the excitement for it that I used to have.”
Not that he’s completely burning that bridge. Should his buddy James Gunn, now co-honcho of the the revamping DCEU, call, he wouldn’t turn down the chance to tackle another Frank Miller classic: The Dark Knight Returns — though he’d only do it if he could make “a true representation of the graphic novel.”
Oh, and he also wouldn’t Miller’s Elektra Lives Again out of bed. “But that’s it,” he insists.
One thing he’s adamant against doing is Star Wars, but only because, he says, “Those guys have a handle on the brand.”
In the chat, Snyder praises some of his old DCEU friends, including Ezra Miller, who he said “did a great job in that Flash movie,” adding, “It’s very difficult to play against yourself.”
Snyder also cast Ray Miller, who played Cyborg in Justice League and had a bear of a time, in Rebel Moon. About him, Snyder said, “He’s weathered the storm in a way not many people could or get to do.”
So to recap: Snyder is definitely but definitely done with superhero movies. Unless he isn’t. And the 300 threequel he wrote at the height of the pandemic doesn’t count.