Zack Snyder says early plans placed Man of Steel in The Dark Knight universe

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Christopher Nolan wrapped up his highly successful Batman trilogy in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises, and the very next year, Zack Snyder kicked off Warner Bros.' DC Universe with Man of Steel, which was entirely separate from what Nolan had crafted. However, while speaking with MTV's Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Snyder revealed that there had been talk of Man of Steel taking place in The Dark Knight universe when he started developing the film in 2010.

It was not 100 percent off the table. We did talk about it a little bit.

Even if Man of Steel had taken place in the Nolan-Verse, we likely wouldn't have seen Henry Cavill's Superman gallivanting around with Christian Bale's Batman as the ending of The Dark Knight Rises found Bale's Bruce Wayne hanging up the cape and passing the mantle of The Dark Knight to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John "Robin" Blake. "It would’ve been interesting because, just doing the math, if we had done that, the Batman in this movie would’ve been Joseph Gordon-Levitt," Snyder said. "Which could’ve been cool…but Nolan, and i don’t blame him, his thing doesn’t get muddied by these other things touching it. It’s a tight box, and I’m glad I didn’t f**k with it because its a pretty nice trilogy." Indeed it was.

Of course, Henry Cavill's Superman did meet up with Batman in the sequel, albeit a new version played by Ben Affleck, but early on, Zack Snyder wasn't sure if the actor would sign on, so he had another actor in the wings — Red Sparrow actor Matthias Schoenaerts "I was talking to him a lot about it," Snyder said. "He never got in the suit, but I did do a bunch of mock-ups of him, because Ben was on the fence. And I don’t blame him. Everyone should be on the fence when you’re asked, 'Do you want to play Batman?'" At the end of the day, Affeck did sign on, but Schoenaerts also felt that he was too young to play the part at the time. Zack Snyder's latest, Army of the Dead, is now streaming on Netflix.